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THE LIBRARY

THE UNIVERSITY

OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

THE ROSE GODDESS

AND OTHER SKETCHES OF MYSTERY
AND ROMANCE

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

THREE GENERATIONS OF
FASCINATING WOMEN

AND OTHER SKETCHES FROM
FAMILY HISTORY

With I Photogravure Plate and 66 Collotype
Portraits and other Illustrations.

Crown 4to, 31s. 6d. net.

SWALLOWFIELD AND ITS
OWNERS

With 15 Photogravure Portraits and 37 other
Illustrations.

Crown 4to, 42s. net.

LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.

LONDON, NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA

Grorgiana Lrnnox afterwards Countbss Bathurst.
(From nil engraving at Swallowfield by Baitoloz/i, after Sir Thomas Lawrence, R.A.)

the ROSE GODDESS and
OTHER SKETCHES OF
MYSTERY ^ ROMANCE

LADY RUSSELL

AUTHOR OF "three GENERATIONS OF FASCINATING WOMEN '
"SWALLOWFIELD AND US OWNERS"

WITH 28 collotype: plates and

22 OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS

LONGMANS, GREEN AND CO.

39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON

NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA

I9IO

All rii'hts reserved

The writer has been guided in the selection of the

subjects for these sketches not always by the intrinsic

interest of the stories themselves, but by the fact that in

each of them, one or more of the characters are either

nearly or remotely connected with her family, so that

although several of them are old stories re-told, she has

been enabled from private sources to add some intimate

particulars.

Many of the illustrations are not generally known to

the public, and are produced in this form for the first

time.

CONSTANCE RUSSELL.

SWALLOWFIELD PaRK,

Reading.

CONTENTS

The Rose Goddess, or The Philosopher's Love

The Real Louise de Keroualle ....

" Che Sara, Sara," or Four Tragedies in One Family

Robin Adair, or The Fortunate Irishman

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat : An

Unsolved Mystery ......

The Captive Princesses ......

" The Peasant Peeress " .

Two Brave Grizels : Grizel Hume and Grizel

Cochrane ........

A Huguenot Family ......

A Strange Miscarriage of Justice ....

Our Polish Cousins .......

A Left-handed Marriage and Something about our

Palatine Relations ......

The Faithful Wyndhams .....

A Loyal Heart .......

The Brazier and the Earl .....

The Merchant of the Ruby and the White Rose
"The Queen of Man" ......

Pedigree To face page

Appendix ..........

Index ...........

72
87

92
116
141

U7
165
181
186

202
215
225
231
238
251

268
269
279

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Georgiana Lennox, afterwards Countess
Bathurst .......

From an Engraving at Szvallorvfield by Bartolozzi, after
Sir Thomas Lawrence, R.A.

Frontispiece

The Residency at Hyderabad

From a Water-colour Drawing at Swallowfield.

To face page 2

Mrs. Phillipps (" Kitty " Kirkpatrick)

From a Miniature by Chalons.

GuiLLAUME de Penancoet, Comte de Keroualle

From a Picture in the possession of the DUKE OF Richmond

at Goodwood.

Henriette, Duchesse d'Orleans (" Madame ")

From a Picture by Henri Gascar, belonging to the Duke of
Richmond.

Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth

From a Painting by HENRI Gascar, in the possession of
Lord Talbot de Malahide.

Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth,
WITH her Son, the First Duke of Richmond

From a Picture by Henri Gascar, belonging to the Duke of
Richmond.

List of Illustrations

Charles Lennox, First Duke of Richmond,

AS A Child To face page 42

From a Mettotint at Swallowfield by R. Williams, afUr

WiSSING.

Duchess of Portsmouth ..... >» 44

From an Engraving by S. FREEMAN, afterSxv Peter Lely.

Louise de Kj^roualle, Duchess of Portsmouth „ 46

From a Portrait by Sir Peter Lely. in the possession of the
Duke of Richmond at Goodwood.

Charles IL ...... . ,,48

From a Painting by Sir Peter Lely, R.A. , belonging to
the Duke of Richmond.

Duchess of Portsmouth ..... » 50

From the Painting by Pierre Mignard, in the A'ational
Portrait Gallery.

Charles Lennox, First Duke of Richmond . „ 58

From a Mezzotint at Swalloufield by I. Faber, after the
Painting hy Sir GODFREY Kneller (1731).

Louise, Countess of Berkeley .... „ 60

From a Picture by Sir GODFREY Kneller, belonging to the
Duke of Richmond.

Anne, First Duchess of Richmond . . ,,62

From a Painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller, belonging to the
Duke of Richmond.

Margaretta Cecilia, First Countess Cadogan „ 62

From a Painting by Sir Godfrey Knellkr, belonging to
the Duke of Richmond.

Charles Lennox, Second Duke of Richmond „ 64

From a Picture by Sir Godfrey Kneller, belonging to the
Duke of Richmond.

List of Illustrations

Sarah, Second Duchess of Richmond . . To face page 66

From a Painting by Sir GODFREY K.NELLER, belonging to the
Duke of Richmond.

Lady Elizabeih Keppel, afterwards Mar-
chioness OF Tavistock .....

From a Mezzotint at Swallowfield by Fisher, after Sir
Joshua Reynolds, R.A.

Lady Caroline Adair

From a Picture by Sir JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P. R.A.

Francis Russell, Fifth Duke of Bedford,
Lord John Russell (afterwards Sixth Duke
of Bedford), Lord William Russell,
AND Miss Henrietta Vernon (afterwards
Countess of Warwick) .... ,,76

From a Mezzotint at Swallowfield by V. Green, 1778, after
Sir Joshua Reynolds, P. R.A.

Georgina, Duchess of Bedford, Daughter of

Alexander, Fourth Duke of Gordon . „ 78

From a Miniature by R. COSWAY, R.A.

Hon. Richard Edgcumbe, Lord William

Russell, Lady Caroline Spencer . . „ 86

From an Engraving after a Painting by } . ROBERTS, 1778.

Miss Rose Bathurst ..... ,,114

From a Miniature belonging to Colonel JOSCELIN BaGOT.

Sarah, Marchioness of Exeter ("The Peasant

Peeress") ,,144

From a Miniature by R. CoswAY, R.A.

Robert Baillie of Jerviswood ... „ 148

From " The Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen "
(Blackie &= Son).

List of Illustrations

Jean Orace de Pechels To face page i68

From a Drawing after the Picture by Pierre Mignard.

Captain Mark Kerr Pechell ... „ i8o

Front a Photograph by Mayall.

Captain Charles Kerr Pechell ... „ i8o

From a Photograph by'WWKXA..

Capt. Sir John Johnston, Third Bart., of
Caskieben .......

From an old Woodcut.

Heidelberg Castle .

From an old Print at Swallozvfield.

182

George Gordon, Second Marquis of Huntly „ 188

From a Picture by George Jameson belonging to the Duke
OF Richmond.

Anne, Marchioness of Huntly, daughter of

the Seventh Earl of Argyll ... ,,190

From a Picture by GEORGE JAMESON belonging to the Duke
OF Richmond.

Elizabeth, Princess Palatine .... „ 204

From a Painting by Gerard Honthorst in the National
Portrait Gallery.

King Charles II. and Elizabeth, Princess

Palatine, his Cousin, dancing at The Hague „ 206

From an Engraving by G. F. Harding, F.S.A., after the
Painting by G. Janssens in the Collection at Windsor
Castle.

Karl Ludwig, Elector Palatine of the Rhine „ 210

From an Engraving by HoLI.AR, after Vandyck.

21 I

List of Illustrations

Marie Luise Susanne, Baroness von Degenfeldt To face page 212

From a Portrait at Heide'lbtrg.

Madam Anne Wyndham, as a Child . . „ 218

From a Mezzotint at Swallo-wfield^ [rare) by Cooper, after

WiSSING.

Sir Nicholas Crispe, Bart. .... ,j 226

From an old Print at Swallowfield.

Bath : Old Roman Bath before Restoration „ 230

Reproduced from the " Bath Pictorial."

Bath : The King's Bath and Mineral Spring,

SHOWING John Rivett's Ring ... „ 230

Reproduced from the " Bath Pictorial."

Jerome Weston, Second Earl of Portland, K.G. „ 232

From an Engraving at Swallowfield by Hollar, after
Vandyck.

Frances Stuart, Second Countess of Portland,

DAUGHTER OF EsME StUART, DuKE OF LeNNOX „ 234

From an Engraving at Swalluiifield by W. HOLLAK, after
Vandyck.

Equestrian Statue of Charles 1. at Charing

Cross, by Hubert le Sueur .... „ 236

From an old Print at Swallowfield.

Jerome Weston, Second Earl OF Portland, K.G. ,, 236

From a Portrait at Swallowfield by Mirevett.

Perkin Warbeck ...... „ 244

From an old Print.

xiii

List of Illustrations

Charlotte Brabantine de Nassau, daughter

OF William the Silent .... To face page 250

James Stanley, Seventh Earl of Derby, K.G.,

AND Charlotte, Countess of Derby . . ,,254

From an Engraving at Swallowjield after the Painting by
Vandyck.

Liverpool in 1680 ...... „ 260

From an Engraving by JOHN Eyes.

James Stanley, Seventh Earl of Derby, K.G. „ 262

From the Portrait in the National Portrait Gallery.

XIV

THE ROSE GODDESS, OR THE
PHILOSOPHER'S LOVE

Made tjnmortal by a kiss. — Carlyle.

For many years there hung on the walls of Swallowfield a
beautiful large oil painting by Chinnery, R.A., of two Eastern
children, a boy and girl, life size, in Indian dress, descending
a broad marble staircase. The colouring was rich, the whole
picture very pleasing and highly decorative, and Sir Henry
Russell and his family valued it extremely. In an evil day
for them, a lady from Devonshire, Mrs. Phillipps by name, who
was paying a visit in the neighbourhood,^ came over to Swallow-
field, and asked to see this picture. Being shown it she was
much affected and shed floods of tears, for she was the little
girl portrayed by Chinnery. The boy was her brother, who was
dead, and the staircase was the entrance to her beautiful home
in India, which she had never seen since she was a child. Sir
Henry was so touched that he said the picture should be hers,
and notwithstanding the remonstrances of his family he left
it to her in his will, and at his death, in 1852, it was sent
to Mrs. Phillipps in Devonshire, where it still is in the house
of one of her descendants. There remains at Swallowfield only
an autotype taken from the picture, which gives no idea of the

1 Mrs. Phillipps was staying with Mrs. Clive at Barkham Manor in the
summer of 1846.

The Rose Goddess

charm of the original, so much of which was dependent on its
colouring. The little boy, one can see, was handsome, but it is
difficult to realise that the somewhat puffy-faced little girl, as
reproduced in the autotype, should have developed into the
beauty immortalised by Carlyle as his " Rose Goddess " and the
" Blumine " of Sartor Resartus — yet such was the case.

The history of the picture is associated with an Eastern
romance. In 176 1 Colonel James Kirkpa trick, a cadet of the
ancient family of Kirkpatrick of Closeburn, who was a cavalry
leader of experience in the Madras army, married at Fort St.
George, Katharine, daughter of Andrew Monro, Esq. They
returned to England in 1779 and settled at Holydale,^ Keston,
near Bromley, in Kent, bringing with them their three little
sons, all of whom were destined to make their mark in Indian
history. But it is in the eldest, James Achilles Kirkpatrick, that
we are specially interested. Born in 1764, he became a most
brilliant soldier, and was known in India by the name of
" Husherrat Jung," or the " Glory of Battle." He was equally
eminent as an able administrator, and in 1797 he replaced his
brother William (who was invalided home) as Resident at the
court of Hyderabad, with an income of ;^20,ooo a year. During
the nine years that he held this post, he successfully conducted
many important negotiations and rendered valuable services to
the Government under Lord Wellesley. He brought Akbar
Ally Khan, the Nizam '^ of Hyderabad, into alliance with the
British power ; and this potentate built for him the beautiful
palace which has ever since been called the Residency. It was
erected by an English engineer, and is a magnificent building,

* Holydale was sold by Colonel Kirkpatrick to Lord Derby.

2 "The Nizam" was a title introduced and only used by Europeans. His own
subjects called him "The Nabob," and his official designation was " Soubadar of
the Deckan."

!; ^.

> Q;

5 $

The Rose Goddess

with a staircase which was then the finest in India. The
Residency stands in the midst of ornamental gardens, and
communicates with the Nizam's palace by a bridge of eight
arches of granite. The Prime Minister, Meer Allum, who had
represented the Nizam with the British Government, was of
Persian blood ; born at Aurangabad, he was a Barmecide, or
Saiad — that is to say, a descendant of Mahomet — and possessed
extraordinary talent.^ He had a great-niece, the granddaughter
of his brother, Akil ood Dov/lah, and the daughter of the Begum
Shurf oon Nissa,^ who was called Khyr oon Nissa,^ and was
very beautiful. Although barely fourteen years of age, she
fell desperately in love with the handsome Colonel, and told
him so. Her first medium of communication was an old
woman, who called on the Resident no less than three times
to tell him of the young Begum's favourable feelings towards
himself, and three times did Colonel Kirkpatrick send her
away without any words that were gratifying to her young
mistress. Then one evening, when he was sitting alone, the
door opened behind him, and a thickly-veiled figure glided in,
and coming before him rapidly unveiled and disclosed the
beauteous form and face of Khyr oon Nissa.

In a letter to his brother, to whom he confided everything,

^ Mr. Russell, the Resident at Hyderabad, says : "Of all the natives I ever
knew, Meer Allum had an understanding the most nearly approaching to the
vigour and comprehension of European minds. He was unquestionably a man
of great talents for public business. His income amounted on an average to
Rs. 1,718,344 per annum, paid by a commission on the revenues.''

* Shurf oon Nissa means "the noblest of women."

^ Khyr oon Nissa (also written Khair oon Nissa) means "the best of women."
Sir Henry Russell said that, unlike as the two may look in writing, there is very
little difiference in pronunciation between Khyr oon Nissa and the Greek
Charonice. Mrs. Mohun Harris, her granddaughter, has a miniature of her in
an Indian dress of folded white muslin and figured red trousers. Her hair, which
was auburn, was dyed black.

The Rose Goddess

Colonel Kirkpatrick thus describes the event : " I did once
safely pass the fiery ordeal of a long nocturnal interview with
the charming object of the present letter. It was this interview
I alluded to as the one when I had a full and close survey of
her lovely person : it lasted during the greater part of the
night, and was evidently contrived by the grandmother and
mother, whose very existence hung on hers, to indulge her
uncontrollable wishes. ... I, who was but ill qualified for the
task, attempted to argue the romantic young creature out of a
passion which I could not, I confess, help feeling myself some-
thing more than pity for. She declared to me again and again
that her affections had been irrevocably fixed on me for a
series of time, that her fate was linked to mine, and that she
should be content to pass her days with me as the humblest
of handmaids. These effusions you may possibly be inclined to
treat as the ravings of a distempered mind, but when I have
time to impart to you the whole affecting tale, you will then
at least allow her actions to have accorded fully with her
declarations."

A few days after this interview. Colonel Kirkpatrick received
a letter asking him to go to the house where the ladies lived ;
which he did, and the young princess, " in melting accents,"
renewed her protestations, and said that if he did not take her
she would be forced to marry her cousin, whom she hated.
All this was in the presence of her grandmother, who added her
entreaties to those of her granddaughter, and as Colonel Kirk-
patrick said to his brother, he would "have been something
more or less than man to have held out any longer. . . ." They
were married by civil contract, according to the Mahometan law,
and the Begum lived in a zenana adjoining the Residency, which
the Colonel had fitted up with every luxury and embellished

The Rose Goddess

with many paintings. A portion of the grounds attached to the
Residency still goes by the name of " The Begum's Garden."
*' This alliance," we read, " caused no little stir and scandal, and
Lord Wellesley contemplated superseding the Resident in con-
sequence ; but Colonel Kirkpatrick's great public services and
the importance of his personal influence at a critical period
condoned his fault."

Two children were born to Colonel Kirkpatrick and his
Begum wife. They were not christened at Hyderabad, but when
they were about four or five years old the ceremony was per-
formed in England, where they were sent to Colonel Kirk-
patrick's father to be brought up. The boy was given the name
of William George,^ and the little girl was called " Katharine
Aurora." It was shortly before their departure that Chinnery,
R.A., who was then in India, painted the picture before alluded
to. Colonel Kirkpatrick and the Begum went to Madras to
see the last of their children, who had an English nurse, and who
were also put under the charge of a Mrs. Ure (the wife of the
English surgeon at Hyderabad) during the voyage, which in
those days lasted six months. The poor mother had not got
over the shock of parting with her children when she was called
upon to meet a still greater one. Her husband went on to
Calcutta, to confer with Lord Cornwallis, the Governor-General,
and died there on the 15th October 1805, at the age of forty-
one. He was given a public funeral, and there is a monument
raised to his memory in St. John's Church, Calcutta, " erected
by his afflicted father and brothers." The much-stricken Begum,
who was still in her teens, thus deprived almost simultaneously
of her husband and children, went back to her mother at
Hyderabad. Mr. Russell (afterwards Sir Henry), who was then
* William George Kirkpatrick died in August 1828.

The Rose Goddess

assistant-secretary under Colonel Kirkpatrick/ and who shortly
after became Resident himself, took much interest in the
future fortunes of the beautiful young Begum. After a time,
by his advice, she moved to Masulipatam, where Mr. Russell
forwarded the picture of her children when Chinnery had given
it the finishing touches.

The children never saw their mother again, nor did they
ever return to India, though the Begum and her mother wrote
pathetic appeals in the hope of inducing their guardians to send
them out. Probably it was feared that, if once they went there,
the call of the blood might make complications, for we know
that at first the children pined for their native surroundings.
They were brought up by their grandfather at Holydale, near
Bromley, and after his death the girl lived with her married
cousins, first with Lady Louis, and then either with Julia,
Mrs. Strachey, or with Barbara (the godchild of Sir Henry
Russell's wife), who married Charles BuUer, their guardian.

Katharine Aurora Kirkpatrick, commonly called " Kitty,"
who was born in 1802, grew up into a most attractive girl, and
we shall see how close a parallel there was between her story
and that of " Blumine." She was of a very unusual type. " A
singular dear Kitty," as Carlyle calls her, and " peculiar among
all dames and damosels." It was in June 1824, at the house of
his friend, the celebrated Edward Irving, that Carlyle first set
eyes on her, and there can be no doubt that he was greatly struck
with her appearance and attracted by her unusual personality, her
lovely voice, and fascinating manners, as well as by her many
amiable qualities, this attraction not being precluded by his pre-

' Mr. Russell was sent to Hyderabad in 1800 as assistant-secretary with a
salary of ^1200 a year, when he was only sixteen years of age, by Lord Mornington,
who said he was the most promising young man he knew.

The Rose Goddess

occupation with Miss Jane Welsh. This is how he alludes to
his first meeting with Miss Kirkpatrick. : " Entry of a strangely
complexioned young lady, with soft brown eyes and floods of
bronze-red hair,^ a pretty-looking, smiling, and amiable, though
most proper, bit of magnificence and kindly splendour whom they
welcomed by the name of ' dear Kitty ' — a very singular dear
Kitty who seemed bashful withal." In the chapter of Sartor
entitled " Romance," Carlyle obviously describes the same
incident : " He finds himself presented to the party and especi-
ally by name to — Blumine. Peculiar among all dames and
damosels glanced Blumine there in her modesty like a star
among earthly lights." ^ For nearly two years before this meet-
ing Carlyle had constantly heard her mentioned, and her praises
sung, not only by the Edward Irvings, on whom she lavished
kindnesses, but by her cousins in whose family he lived.
" Blumine was a name well-known to him ; far and wide was
the fair one heard of."

In the spring of 1822, when the struggling and unknown
young philosopher was twenty-five years of age, he had obtained,
through the recommendation of Edward Irving, the post of tutor
to Miss Kirkpatrick's cousins, the three young sons of Charles
Buller, her guardian, with a salary of £100 a year, which was
a god-send to him in those days ; but in June 1824 he gave up
tutoring and went as a guest to the Irvings' house at Pentonville.

* Her hair was a very uncommon colour and unlike that of any European. She
herself said it was supposed to be peculiar to the Persian royal family from which
her mother sprung : the latter had the same coloured hair but stained it black.
Miss Kirkpatrick's hair, which was naturally curly and wavy, was of a deep auburn
colour, and when she was young it gleamed in the sun with a bright metallic lustre.

^ Carlyle several times applies the term of modestj', in the sense of bashfulncss,
to "Blumine" and to Kitty. This quality was always a leading characteristic of
Miss Kirkpatrick's, and certainly Miss Welsh's greatest admirers could not say it
was one of hers !

The Rose Goddess

On his arrival there he was greeted with praises of Miss
Kirkpatrick, for she had just overwhelmed them with gratitude
and delight. When Irving took No, 7 Myddelton Terrace, he
was too poor to furnish his drawing-room, and on the first
occasion of a temporary absence of himself and his wife, Kitty
spent ^500 on fitting it up and adding some extra comforts to
the somewhat barren house. No wonder that there was much
talk about her ! Soon Carlyle saw her again in the flesh ; this
was at Goodenough House, the Stracheys' country-house at
Shooter's Hill, a pretty little place, famed for its roses — their
variety and their abundance. A fit setting for the Rose Goddess,
and where Carlyle saw " the effulgent vision of dear Kitty among
the roses and almost buried under them." Writing long after
of her appearance at this date, he says : —

" Kitty was charming in her beautiful Begum sort, had
wealth abundant and might perhaps have been charmed none
knows. She had one of the prettiest smiles — a visible sense
of humour — the slight merry curl of the upper lip (left side
only), the carriage of her head and eyes on such occasions, the
quaint little things she said in that kind, and her low-toned,
hearty laugh were noticeable. This was perhaps her most
spiritual quality ; of developed intellect she had not much
though not wanting in discernment : amiable, affectionate, grace-
ful, not slim enough for the title pretty, not tall enough for
beautiful, and something low-voiced languidly harmonious,
loved perfumes, &c., a half Begum, in short an interesting
specimen of the semi-oriental Englishwoman."

To his father Carlyle wrote about Kitty in a more prosaic
strain : —

" The young Miss Kirkpatrick, with whom I was already
acquainted, is a very pleasant, meritorious person — one of the

The Rose Goddess

kindest and most modest I have ever seen. Though hand-
some and young, and sole mistress of ^^ 50,000/ she is meek
and unassuming as a Httle child ; she laughs in secret at the
awkward extravagance of the Orator (Ed. Irving), yet she
loves him as a good man, and busies herself with nothing so
much as discharging the duties of hospitality to us all."

One cannot help thinking that Carlyle may then have had
airy visions of a time when possibly Kitty might be something
more to him than an unattainable star, and that he purposely
painted her to his homely parents in the light that would most
appeal to them — dilating upon her kindness, her modesty, her
housekeeping qualities, and — her ^^50,000!

During the autumn of 1824 Miss Kirkpatrick and Carlyle
were much thrown together. She and the Stracheys rented a
house at Dover,^ and thither came the Edward Irvings and the
Philosopher, and then we hear of wanderings on the beach
** in threes or twos," and Carlyle tells us they had readings in the
evening of Phineas Fletcher's^ "Purple Island," "over which
Irving strove to be solemn and Kitty and I rather not, throwing
in now and then a little spice of laughter and quiz." To Miss
Welsh Carlyle wrote about this visit, and in his letter says :
" This Kitty is a singular and very pleasing creature, a little
black-eyed, auburn-haired brunette, full of kindliness and
humour, and who never, I believe, was angry at any creature
for a moment in her life ; " and " she is meek and modest as
a quakeress."

Miss Welsh evidently did not like Carlyle's encomiums

* Her guardians had the whole control of her money till she was twenty-one.

- The house was in Liverpool Terrace.

'■' Phineas Fletcher, a disciple of Spenser, born in 1584. His brother Giles,
equally a poet, wrote a poem on " Paradise Regained," which suggested the
subject to Milton, who borrowed many hints from it.

The Rose Goddess

on the Rose Goddess, and in her answer to him writes in a
sneering tone : —

" I congratulate yoi-i on your present situation. With such a
picture of domestic felicity before your eyes, and this * singular
and very pleasing creature ' to charm away the blue-devils, you
can hardly fail to be as happy as the day is long. Miss Kitty
Kirkpatrick — Lord, what an ugly name ! Good Kitty ! oh,
pretty, dear, delightful Kitty ! I am not a bit jealous of her,
not I indeed ! — Hindoo Princess tho' she be ! Only you may
as well never let me hear you mention her name again."

That she was jealous of Kitty is self-evident, and Carlyle's
praises long rankled in her mind. Tv/o years later, in
February 1826, she quotes them again thus: —

"There is Catharine Aurora Kirkpatrick, for instance, who
has ;^ 50,000 and a princely lineage, and ' never was out of
humour in her life ' ; with such ' a singularly pleasing creature '
and so much fine gold you could hardly fail to find yourself
admirably well off."

During this visit of Carlyle's to Dover, a trip to Paris was

proposed and instantly decided on. The party consisted of

Mr. Strachey, Miss Kirkpatrick, and Carlyle, and Miss

Kirkpatrick took her maid. Froude tells us a travelling

carriage (which was Miss Kirkpatrick's) was sent across the

Channel, post-horses were always ready on the Dover road, and

Carlyle was now to be among the scenes so long familiar to him

as names. They went by Montreuil, Abbeville, Nampont, with

Sterne's " Sentimental Journey " as a guide-book. Carlyle sat

usually outside, " fair Kitty sometimes sitting," he says, " by me

on the hindward seat," Carlyle coming on Paris fresh with

a mind like wax to receive impressions, yet tenacious as steel in

preserving them, carried off recollections from his twelve days'

The Rose Goddess

sojourn in the French capital which never left him, and served him
well in after years when he came to write about the Revolution.
Froude goes on to say that his expedition had created no small
excitement at his Scottish home. The old people had grown up
under the traditions of the war. For a son of theirs to go abroad
at all was almost miraculous. When they heard that he had gone
to Paris, " all the stoutness of their hearts was required to bear it."
When they returned to England, Mr. Strachey and Miss
Kirkpatrick stopped at Shooter's Hill, and Carlyle went to Isling-
ton, where he took lodgings near Irving. Whilst here he con-
tinued constantly to meet Kitty, both at Shooter's Hill and
in Fitzroy Square, where the Stracheys had their town house.
And " now that the Rose Goddess sits in the same circle with
him, the light of her eyes has smiled on him, if he speaks she
will hear it. Nay, who knows, since the heavenly sun looks into
the lowest valleys, but Blumine herself might have noted the so
unnotable. . . . Was the attraction, the agitation mutual then.? . . .
He ventured to address her, she answered with attention ; nay
what if there were a slight tremor in that silver voice. ^ What
if the red glow of evening were hiding a transient blush ! . . .
the hours seemed moments ; holy was he and happy, the v/ords
from those sweetest lips came over him like dew on thirsty
grass. ... At parting the Blumine's hand was in his: in the balmy
twilight, with the kind stars above them, he spoke something of
meeting again, which was not contradicted ; he pressed gently
those small soft fingers, and it seemed as if they were not
angrily withdrawn. Day after day, in town, they met again :
like his heart's sun, the blooming Blumine shone on him. Ah !
a little while ago and he was yet in all darkness. . . . And now, O

^ Miss Kirkpatrick's voice was remarkable for its sweet melodious tone, which
certainly could not be said of Miss Welsh's.

I I

The Rose Goddess

now ! she looks on thee ... in free speech, earnest or gay, amid
lambent glances, laughter, tears, and often with the inarticulate
mystic speech of music. ^ Such was the element they now lived
in : in such a many-tinted radiant aurora, and by this fairest of
Orient Light-bringers '" must our friend be blandished. Fairest
Blumine ! And even as a star, all fire and humid softness, a
very Light-ray incarnate. Was she not to him in very deed a
Morning Star. As from ^olian harps in the breath of dawn,
as from the Memnon's statue struck by the rosy finger of Aurora,
unearthly music was around him, and lapped him into untried
balmy rest. Pale doubt fled away to the distance ; Life bloomed
up with happiness and hope. ... If he loved his disenchantress
— Ach Gott ! His whole heart and soul were hers. . . , Our
readers have witnessed the origin of this Love-mania, and with
what royal splendour it waxes and rises. Let no one ask us to
unfold the glories of its dominant state ; much less the horrors
of its almost instantaneous dissolution. . . . We glance merely
at the final scene. One morning he found his Morning Star all
dimmed and dusky-red ; the fair creature was silent, absent, she
seemed to have been weeping. Alas, no longer a Morning Star,
but a troublous skyey Portent, announcing that the Doomsday
had dawned ! She said in a tremulous voice they were to meet
no more. We omit the passionate expostulations, entreaties,
indignations, since all was vain, and not even an explanation was
conceded him ; and hasten to the catastrophe. ' Farewell,
then, Madam ! ' said he, not without sternness, for his stung
pride helped him. She put her hand in his, she looked in his
face, tears started to her eyes ; in wild audacity he clasped her

' The Stracheys constantly had musical parties.

- It is surely a little far-fetched to say that the fairest of Orient Light-bringers
is "'a poetical expression" describing Jane Welsh, because Haddington was east
of Edinburgh I

The Rose Goddess

to his bosom, their lips were joined, their two souls, like two
dew-drops, rushed into one — for the first time, and for the
last ! Thus was he made immortal by a kiss. And then ?
Why, then — thick curtains of Night rushed over his soul as rose
the immeasurable crash of Doom."

Carlyle thought that Mrs. Strachey, whom he calls " the
dearest friend I anywhere had in the world," encouraged his
flirtation, and he wrote in his journal : " Mrs. Strachey took to me
from the first, nor ever swerved. It strikes me now more than
it then did she silently would have liked to see ' Dear Kitty '
and myself together and to continue near her both of us through
life — the good kind soul." Carlyle was alluding to another
of the family when he talks of " the Duenna Cousin, in whose
meagre, hunger-bitten philosophy the religion of young hearts
was from the first faintly approved of." Probably Mrs. Buller,
Kitty's cousin, and the wife of her guardian.^ It was not to be
wondered at that those to whose guardianship their rich and
beautiful young cousin had been confided, should wish to dis-
courage any possibility of her allying herself with the ci-devant
tutor, a man of lowly birth and very precarious means, however
much they liked him personally and appreciated his genius. Even
Carlyle himself says : " What figure at that period was a ' Mrs.'
Teufelsdrockh [the name by which he called himself] likely to
make in polished society ? Could she have driven so much as
a brass-bound gig, or even a simple iron spring one ? ' Pshaw !

^ Describing Mrs. Strachey, Carlyle says : " She is as unlike Mrs. Buller as pure
gold is to gilt copper ; she is an earnest, determined, warm-hearted religious
matron, while the other is but a fluttering patroness of routs and balls." In
Sartor he talks of Mrs. Strachey as the Gnadige Frau who, as an ornamental
artist, might sometimes like to promote flirtations.

" The famous answer in Thurtell's trial, when a witness was asked why he
called a man respectable, " He kept a gig," so tickled Carlyle's fancy, that ever
after he talked of " a gigman " and " gigmanity " to denote the world's estimate of
respectability.

The Rose Goddess

the divine Blumine, when she resigned herself to wed some olher^
shows more philosophy than thou, a pretended man,"

Thus ended this romantic episode of Carlyle's early life.
To quote his own words, *' he loved once not wisely but too
well, and once only."

Mrs. Mercer, ne'e Elizabeth Ord, a connection of Kitty's,
who was one of her most intimate friends, was staying with her
at Warberry many years after, and gives us the following inter-
esting recollection : " Kitty was arranging books in the library,
when she turned to me and said, ' Lizzie, have you ever read
Sartor Resartus?' No, I had not. 'Well, get it and read the
" Romance." I am the heroine, and every word of it is true.
He was then tutor to my cousin, Charles Buller, and had made
no name for himself, so of course I was told that any such an
idea could not be thought of for a moment. What could I do
with every one against it } Now any one might be proud to be
his wife.' " Mrs. Mercer goes on to say : " How Mr. Froude
and other writers could ever have imagined that ' Blumine '
represented any woman but herself puzzles me. Froude says
it referred to Margaret Gordon, and others have insisted to
Carlyle's own wife ; but the description in the * Romance ' was
so strictly true that by no possibility could it apply to any one
else. ... A blooming, warm, earth angel, more enchanting
than your mere white angels of women.' " Her cousin. Sir
George Strachey, says: "That 'Blumine' personified Miss
Kirkpatrick has always passed in the family for a certainty,
requiring no more discussion than the belief that Nelson
stands on the column in Trafalgar Square."

Carlyle left London in March 1825, but, as he says, " if his
sudden bereavement in this matter of the Flower Goddess is

^ How could this apply to Jane Welsh !
14

The Rose Goddess

talked of as a real Doomsday and Dissolution of Nature, his own
nature is nowise dissolved thereby ; but rather is compressed
closer ! For once, as we might say, a Blumine by magic
appliances has unlocked that shut heart of his, and its hidden
things rush out tumultuous, boundless, like genii enfranchised
from their glass phial ; but no sooner are your magic appliances
withdrawn, than the strange casket of a heart springs to again ;
and perhaps there is now no key extant that will open it, for a
Teufelsdrockh will not love a second time/ Singular Diogenes !
no sooner has that heartrending occurrence fairly taken place,
than he affects to regard it as a thing natural of which there is
nothing more to be said. . . . What things soever passed in
him — what ravings and despairings soever Teufelsdrockh's soul
was the scene of, he has the goodness to conceal under a quite
opaque cover of silence. . . . The first mad paroxysm past
our brave Gneschen collected his dismembered philosophies and
buttoned himself together ; he was meek, silent, or spoke of the
weather and the journals, only by a transient knitting of those
shaggy brows, by some deep flash of those eyes glancing one
knew not with tear-dew or with fierce fire, might you have
guessed what a Gehenna was within," The climax came when
in the course of his wanderings, " the silence was broken by a
sound of carriage wheels, and emerging from the northward
came a gay Barouche and four ; it was open ; servants, postilion
wore wedding-favours ; that happy pair, then, had found each
other ; it was their marriage evening ! Few moments brought

' Froude says : " Carlyle admired Miss Welsh, his future wife, loved her in a
certain sense; but like her he was not in love. Her mind and temper suited him,
he had allowed her image to intertwine itself with all his thoughts and emotions,
but with love his feeling for her had nothing in common but the name." In 1827
Carlyle wrote : " Surely / shall learn at Icni^th to prize the pearl of great price which
God has given to me unworthy."

The Rose Goddess

them near, Du Himmel ! It was Herr Towgood and Blumine.
With slight unrecognising salutation they passed me, plunged
down amid the neighbouring thickets, onwards to Heaven and
to England, and I, in my friend Richter's words, ' I remained
alone behind them with the night.' "

Kitty Kirkpatrick married Captain James Winsloe-Phillipps,
an officer of the yth Hussars, Lord Anglesey's crack regiment.
He was extremely handsome, and Carlyle describes him as " a
man of fine presence and unusual charm of personality." The
dyspeptic philosopher applied the term of " Towgood " (Tough-
gut) to him and others of his set as a generic name for men
of sound digestion, often as he thought with more health and
good looks than brains.

Kitty's mother was now dead, but her maternal grandmother,

Shurf oon Nissa, was still alive ; and Kitty wrote to her after she

was married to acquaint her with the fact, and sent a picture

of herself. She received in return, through Sir Henry Russell,

a most affectionate letter in the high-flown and poetic language

of her country. It was written in fine Persian writing, on paper

sprinkled with gold-leaf, and enclosed in a bag of cloth of gold.

In it she says : " My child, the light of mine eyes, the solace of

my heart, may God grant her long life ; after offering up my

prayers that her days may be lengthened, her dignity increased,

let it be known to my child that by the mercy and goodness

of God her representation arrived after a long time, and having

brought happiness with its presence, imparted happiness to my

heart and light to my eyes and occasioned such joy and delight

that an account of it cannot be brought within the compass

of the tongue or pen. The letter written by my child is

pressed by me sometimes to my head and sometimes to my

eyes. It is written in it that my child has married the nephew

Mrs. Phillipps, ("Kitty" Kirkpatrick).
" The Rose Goddess. "
(Prom a Miniature by Chalons)

The Rose Goddess

of Sir John Kennaway, ' Delawar Jung.' ^ The receipt of this
news replete with gladness has added joy upon joy to me."
Then comes a quotation : " If my life had been the sacrifice
for this goodness, it would be of no consequence." Shurf oon
Nissa goes on to say : " God is my witness that 1 keep my child
in my remembrance even to a greater degree than she has done
me. No minute or second passes by in which I do not think
of her. May the pure and exalted God speedily lift up the
veil of separation from between us and gladden us with a
meeting. ... In compliance with my child's request, I am
sending a lock of her mother's hair, I formerly received
accounts of the welfare of my children from Sir William
Rumbold, but since Colonel Doveton left this, I have received
no further accounts." Shurf oon Nissa Begum died in
1846.

Major and Mrs. Phillipps lived very happily if uneventfully
in Devonshire. They had eight children, but only four lived
to grow up." He died in 1864, but she survived, "beautiful
to the last," till 1888.^ Sir Edward Strachey, in an article
which he wrote about her, says: "I remember her from girl-
hood to old age as the most fascinating of women ; " and another
writer says : " In person she was far more foreign than English,
and it was this rare combination of Eastern grace and beauty
with the highest culture which made her so very charming.

^ Sir John Kennaway had been sent by Lord Cornwallis in 1788 as Envoy
to the court of Hyderabad.

* One son and three daughters : John James Winsloe-Philhpps, who married
Miss Charlotte Strachey; Mary Augusta married Captain Uniacke of the 60th
Rifles ; Emily, the Rev. Walpole Mohun-Harris of Hayne; Bertha, Colonel Lucius
Carey of Torr Abbey.

' Twenty-five years before this, Mrs. Phillipps had gone to visit Carlyle, but
found only Mrs. Carlyle, who wrote to her husband, "Oh, my dear, she is
anything but good-looking ! "

17 B

The Rose Godde

She had a keen sense of humour and the kindest heart, and
could not bear to give another pain."

In October 1868, Mrs. Phillipps went to see Carlyle in
Cheyne Row, and ^ propos of her visit he quotes from Virgil,
" Agnosco veteris vestigia flammas" (I feel the traces of my
ancient flame ) ; and shortly after he wrote to her : " Your little
visit did me a great deal of good ; so interesting, so strange, to see
her we used to call 'Kitty' emerging on me from the dusk of
evening like a dream become real. It set me thinking for many
hours upon times long gone, and persons and events that can
never cease to be important and affecting to me. ... I grudged
to be specially unwell that day (below par, in regard to sleep,
&c., for three weeks past), and never fairly to see you, except
in chiaroscuro, vv^hile you talked. You must mend that by
making me another visit when the lights are better disposed
towards us. With a great deal of readiness, I send you the
photograph, which you are pleased to care for, being sorry only
it is such a grim affair (thanks to time and what he brings and
takes), though, indeed, this was never much a bright image, not
even forty-eight years ago, when your bright eyes first took
it in." His letter finishes with these words: "All round me is
the sound as of evening bells, which are not sad only, or ought
not to be, but beautiful also and blessed and quiet. No more
to-day, dear lady : my best wishes and affectionate regards
will abide with you to the end." — J. C,

If Kitty Kirkpatrick had married Carlyle, the world would
probably have been the loser, as his Jane, the love of his in-
tellect, spurred him on, and without her he would not have
risen to so high an eminence; but, on the other hand, perhaps
the grim philosopher would have been happier with the
" undeveloped intellect " of the sweet " Rose Goddess."

THE REAL LOUISE DE
KEROUALLE

" Your smiles have more of conquering charms,
Than all your native country's arms ;
Their troop we can expel with ease,
Who vanquish only when we please.

But in your eyes, O ! there's the spell !

Who can see them and not rebel ?
You make us captives by your stay ;
Yet kill us if you go away."

— The Fair Stra7iger, Song addressed to -Mdlle.
de Keroualle by Dryden.

It is said that Louise de Keroualle, Duchess of Portsmouth,
boasted that she was related to all the great families of France,
and that she never omitted to put on mourning at the death
of any member of the French aristocracy. Once a French
prince and the Cham of Tartary died about the same time.
Mademoiselle de Keroualle as usual donned her mourning, and
Nell Gwyn also appeared in sable garb. The latter was'asked
for whom she wore black. " For the Cham of Tartary," she
answered. " What relation was he to you ? " was the laughing
question. *' The same that the Prince was to Mademoiselle
de Keroualle ! " retorted the saucy beauty. Another story
told with the same import is to be found in one of Madame
de Sevigne's letters to her daughter, and reads as follows:
" Madame de Kcrouel avait pris un grand deuil pour le roi
de Suede ; a quelque temps de la, le roi de Portugal vint a
mourir; Nelgouine {sic) parut avec un carrosse drape et disait :

The Real Louise de Keroualle

' La Kerouel et moi avons partage le monde ; elle a les rois du
Nord, et moi ceux da Midi,' "

Nell Gwyn, however, was in this case more witty than wise,
for Louise de Keroualle could boast with perfect truth of a
very ancient lineage both on her father's and her mother's side,
and moreover, the great number of kings and queens, not to
mention other illustrious personages, that are to be found in
her pedigree, is very remarkable. It is not astonishing that
Nell Gwyn knew nought of these royal ancestors and noble
relations, but it does seem curious that modern writers, who
pretend to write true biographies, should print such statements
as the following, which appeared in a recent publication entitled
"Court Beauties of Whitehall." The author says of Louise
de Keroualle, " Although Madam Carwell, as the English people
called her, has escaped oblivion, the mere spelling of her name
has become a matter of indifference to history. ... A similar
uncertainty attaches to her origin. The Duchess of Ports-
mouth, however, had no doubt about it, and was herself ex-
tremely proud of her ancestry, and boasted — when in England,
be it understood — an ancient and distinguished lineage. It (sir)
is characteristic of parvenus."

Now there is absolutely no uncertainty attached to the

origin of Louise de Keroualle ; no pedigree is better attested

than hers, and the veriest tyro in French history can easily

ascertain for himself her "ancient and distinguished lineage."

She was no " parvenuc " but patrician "jusqu'au bout des

ongles." Her pedigree is to be found ifj extenso in the very

well-known work of the greatest authority on noble French

families, namely, the Hisloire gcnealogique et chronologique de la

Maison Royale de France^ written by Le Pere Ansel me, vol. v.

p. 928, and we are giving a resume of it in our appendix, all

The Real Louise de Keroualle

the names surmounted by a cross being of the Royal House of
France.

Louise-Renee de Penancoet de Keroualle was the eldest
daughter of Guillaume de Penancoet, Comte de Keroualle,
Seigneur de Kerboronne de la Villeneuve et du Chef-du-bois,
by his wife Marie-Anne de Ploeuc, daughter of Sebastien,
Marquis du Timeur et de Kergorlay.

The house of Penancoet de Keroualle was a very ancient
though impoverished family of Brittany, seated near Brest, and
descended from Rene de Penhoct, living in 1280. The Penhoct
family was one of the four great families of the eveche de
Leon, of whom it was said : —

" Antiquite de Penhoct,
Vaillance du Chaste!,
Richesse de Kerman,
Chevalerie de Kergournadeck."

A Penhoet married the daughter and heiress of a Penancoet,

Seigneur de Keroualle, and acquired with her the lands of

Keroualle in Basse Bretagne, an express stipulation being made

that he and his descendants should drop their patronymic and

take that of Penancoet as well as adopt their shield (" Fasce

d'argent et d'azur de six pieces "), which accordingly they did, as

also the motto "A bep pen leaddit" (" Loyaute partout "), and

" En diayez " (" A decouvert ").

But it was on the distaff side that Louise de Keroualle's

pedigree was so remarkable. Her grandmother was a de Rieux,

a daughter of Rene de Rieux, Marquis de Sourdeac, whose father,

Jean de Rieux, was second cousin to King Francois I. Through

the de Rieux's, Louise de Keroualle was allied to the houses

of de Bretagne, de Penthievre, de Leon, de Machecoul,

d'Amboise, de Clisson, de Rochefort, de Montauban, d'Harcourt,

The Real Louise de Keroualle

de Rohan, d'llliers, d'Aiguillon, de Loraine, de Derval, de
Rouge, de Boyseon, de Montmorency et de Bourbon.

Louise was descended from Jeanne de France, daughter of
Charles VI., and also, through the de Rohans, from Jean de
Montfort, fifth Duke of Brittany, and his wife Jeanne, daughter
of the King of Navarre, who afterwards became the Queen of
Henry IV. of England ; and consequently Mademoiselle de
Keroualle was related to the Kings Fran9ois I., Henri II.,
Francois II., Charles IX., Henri III., and Henri IV., and thus
was a distant cousin of King Charles II. of England as well as
of Louis XIV. There is a letter extant written by the French
King, Henri III., to the great-great-grandfather of Louise de
Keroualle, in which his Majesty says : " Ayant mis en considera-
tion la grandeur, illustre maison, et noblesse de notre cousin
Messire Jean de Rieux," &c. &c., and in 1710, when Rene-
Louis de Rieux wrote a letter to Louis XIV. claiming his
protection against certain abuses of power committed in the
island of Ouessant (Ushant), he reminds the King of the
following facts concerning his pedigree : namely, that Rene de
Rieux de Sourdeac, son of the above and great-great-grand-
father of Louise de Keroualle, " had the honour of being fourth
cousin to Henri IV. ; that since first the de Rieux had made
alliances in France, they had always been related to all the
Kings of France either in the third, fourth, or fifth degree ;
that the family of the de Rieux descends through the women,
and is allied to all the most considerable crowned heads of
Europe ; and lastly, that the family take their origin from the
ancient (royal) Dukes of Bretagne in a direct line and without
any break or change of name."

The descendant of such a line can scarcely be called a

parvenue " !

The Real Louise de Keroualle

In " Court Beauties of Whitehall " we also find the follow-
ing curious statement : " Her father (Louise's) went to Paris
as a boy to seek his fortunes. Of this (sic) he appears to have
amassed in the wool trade sufficient to enable him to retire in
middle life to his native Brittany." Now! it is the author who
must be wool-gathering : as a matter of fact, Guillaume de
Penancoet was a soldier ; he took part in the sieges of
Hesdin (1639) and of Arras (1640), where he was wounded;
and he was also at the sieges of Aire and Bapaume in 1641.
On his return from Perpignan he was made " Guidon de la
Compagnie des Gens d'Armes " of the Cardinal Richelieu,
and later on he commanded " I'arriere ban de I'eveche de
Leon."

" Revenons a nos moutons," it is quite possible that on
the farms of the Comte de Keroualle the little Breton sheep
throve and were duly shorn and their wool sold, but this
would no more have constituted him a wool-trader than it
does his descendant, the Duke of Richmond, because he is
the owner of the celebrated South Down wethers !

With regard to the several ways of spelling the family
name of the Duchess of Portsmouth, which the author of
" Court Beauties " brings forward as another proof of the
uncertainty of her origin, surely this rather tends to show
its antiquity ! We have found it in old family documents
and historical archives spelt in the following ways : Keroel,
Kerouazle, Kerhouet, Kerhoual, Kerhouent. In England it
was generally written Querouaille, and the common people
called it " Carwel." In the old family papers it is usually
" Keroualle," which rendering we therefore adopt.

Louise's father married, as we have said, Marie-Anne de
Pldeuc, daughter of the Marquis du Timeur. She was dis-

The Real Louise de Keroualle

tinguished for her piety and her ardent love of the Catholic
rehgion, and after she married (in 1645), we find her con-
stantly standing as " marraine " at the " conversion " of
Huguenot soldiers at Brest.

John Evelyn in his Diary writes on the 15th June, 1675,
as follows : " Mr. Querouaille and his lady came to see Sir
Richard Browne (Evelyn's father-in-law), with whom they
were intimately acquainted in Bretagne at the time Sir Richard
was sent to Brest to supervise his Majesty's sea affairs.^ This
gentleman's house was not a mile from Brest. He seemed
a soldierly person and a good fellow. His lady had been
very handsome, and seemed a shrewd understanding woman.
His daughter was Duchess of Portsmouth, and in the height
of favour, but he never made any use of it." According
to Monsieur Walckenaer, Louis XIV., in consequence of the
line that the Comte de Keroualle took with regard to his
daughter, wrote the following letter '^ to him : —

" Les services importants que la duchesse de Portsmouth
a rendues a la France m'ont decide a la creer pairesse, sous le
titre de duchesse d'Aubigny, pour elle et toute sa descendance.
J'espere que vous ne serez pas plus severe que votre roi, et que
vous retirerez la malediction que vous avez cru devoir faire peser
sur votre malheureuse fille. Je vous en prie en ami et vous le
demande en roi. — Louis."

The Comte de Keroualle died in 1690, his wife survived
till 1709, There are portraits of them and their only son at
Goodwood. The son, whose name was Sebastien, was in the

' Sir Richard Browne was Ambassador in Paris during the reij^ns of
Charles I. and Charles II.

2 Published in Monsieur Walckenaer's Mi'iiioircs sur Madame de Scvigm\
vol. iii.

GUILLAUMH DE PeN'AXCOET, Co.MTK DR Kf'roUALLE.

(From a picture in the possession of the Duke of Richmond at Goodwood)

The Real Louise de Keroualle

French navy under the Due de Beaufort, and assisted in the
taking of Candia in 1669 : he died unmarried on his return
from this expedition at the age of twenty-two.

Of the two daughters of the Comte de Keroualle, the
youngest, Henriette-Mauricette, married firstly, Philip Herbert,
Earl of Pembroke, K.G., and secondly, Timoleon Gouffier,
Marquis de Thois, by whom she left issue. The eldest daughter,
Louise-Renee, the subject of this sketch, was born at Keroualle,
near Brest, in September 1649, and was baptized at Guiler (or
Guylar), for the poor of which place she left money in her
will. Louise was sent for her education to the " Couvent des
Ursulines " at Lesneven, a small town near Brest. Owing to
the poverty of the Keroualle family, it would have been quite
impossible for her parents to give Louise any " dot," and she
was destined to a religious life ; but when she was nineteen,
though then somewhat too thin, she had so much promise of
beauty, as well as such great intelligence and rare charm of
manner, that some relations in power intervened and brought
her to Paris, and in the year 1668, chiefly through the influence
of Monsieur de Chaulnes, Governor of Brittany, a friend of
her father's, she was nominated one of the Maids-of-honour
(" aux appointemens de 150 livres ") to Henriette, Duchesse
d'Orleans, sister of Charles II., and sister-in-law of Louis XIV.,
celebrated in French history as " Madame d'Angleterre." The
Maids-of-honour were under the surveillance of Mademoiselle
Anne de Bourgogne, with Mademoiselle Catherine d'Orville as
" sous-gouvernante," and the other Maids-of-honour were
Mademoiselle Marie-Simone du Bellay, Mademoiselle Helene
Fourre de Dampierre, and " Madame " du Lude, afterwards
Chanoinesse de Poussay. We are distinctly told that at this
time the conduct and demeanour of Mademoiselle de Keroualle

The Real Louise de Keroualle

was most decorous, and that nothing was ever heard against her.

*'Ouoi qu'il en soit par froideur ou par vertu, par ambition ou

par scrupule religieux, Mademoiselle de Keroualle ne fit point

parler d'elle " (Le Moine). Her name only appears in one

document of the time. This was in January 1669, // propos

of a grand reception given to the Venetian Ambassador by the

Duke and Duchess of Orleans, when a ballet took place, and

Charles Robinet addressed some verses to Madame, in which

he alludes to —

" Votre fille d'Honneur nouvelle,
Egalement mignone et belle,
Et gai, par dessus ses appas,
Salt figurer de galans pas,
Ce qui veut dire qu'elle danse,
Et sait a ravir la cadence."

The following year Mademoiselle de Keroualle accompanied

the Duchess of Orleans when she went with Louis XIV. to

visit his new acquisitions in Flanders. The royal progress,

which started in April 1670, was most ostentatious, the King

being attended by an army of 20,000 men, Lauzun riding

at the head of the Royal Guards ; and " le roi Soleil " was

accompanied by the Queen, the Princesses, the Dauphin, La

Grande Mademoiselle, and Madame de Montespan, each with

their respective suites making a colossal retinue. Madame's

alone consisted of 237 persons, amongst whom were the

Comte and Comtesse de Grammont, Anthony Hamilton,

the Marechal de Plesis, and the Duke of Monmouth.

They stayed at Dcuai, Courtrai, Tournay, and Lille. Before

they reached Douai they went through many vicissitudes, and

Mademoiselle de Montpensier, " La Grande Mademoiselle," in

her Memoirs gives a most amusing account of the hardships

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they encountered. The weather was very bad and the roads
were atrocious ; the horses stuck in the mud and sank in the
bogs, and carriages were overturned. The first night the
cavalcade had to cross a river to get to Landrecies, but it
was so swollen as to be practically impassable. Some of the
party attempted it, and had to leave their coaches in the
river, and unharnessing their horses ride back to terra firma.
The Queen refused to go further, and the King's party had
to take refuge at one o'clock in the morning in a miserable
house in a meadow, where there were only two rooms, one
bed, and one candle ! Some mattresses were brought by the
King's servants and laid on the floor side by side, there being
no room for any space between them. The Queen was horrified
at the idea, and said, " Cela serait horrible, quoi coucher tous
ensemble!" but the King replied, "Quoi! etre sur des matelas
tout habilles, il y a du mal .^ " La Grande Demoiselle was
asked her opinion, and said that she saw none ; so the Queen
consented, and the King and Monsieur and len or tv/elve
ladies prepared to rest. The Queen laid on the one bed,
which she had placed so that she could see all round the
room, and the King said to her, " Vous n'avez qu'a tenir
votre rideau ouvert : vous nous verrez tous " ! Amongst
the sleeping party Mademoiselle mentions Madame de Monte-
span and Mademoiselle Louise de la Valliere, and the Queen
and Madame had their respective Maids-of-honour in waiting,
so we may presume that Louise de Keroualle had her share
of the mattresses. In the second room were Monsieur de
Lauzun and " les grands officiers du Roi." Monsieur de
Lauzun was constantly being called away, and each time had
to pass through the room containing the sleeping beauties.

Once in doing so his spur caught in the coiffe of Mademoiselle

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de la Valliere, which made every one laugh excepting the
Queen ; but even the latter could not help smiling at a remark
of Madame de Thianges, who said that hearing the cows
and the asses in the adjoining stable made her feel devout.
After this we are told they all slept, and the next morning
at four o'clock Monsieur de Louvois came in to tell the
King a bridge had been made and the journey could be
continued.

When the royal party arrived at Lille, Madame said, as if
on the spur of the moment, that she could not be so near
England without going to see her beloved brother, and accord-
ingly, accompanied by her suite, which included Mademoiselle
de Keroualle, she went to Dunkirk, where King Charles sent the
English fleet, commanded by Lord Sandwich, to meet her and
convey her to England. Madame reached Dover on the 25th
May, and the King, who was an expert oarsman, rowed himself
out several miles to meet her at five o'clock in the morning :
he was accompanied by the Duke of York, Prince Rupert, and
the Duke of Monmouth. On the 29th the Queen, for whom
Charles had sent, arrived at Dover, and great rejoicings took
place, that being the tenth anniversary of the Restoration. There
were gay doings also on other days. The King took his sister
to Canterbury, where a ballet and a comedy were acted before
her, and a banquet was given in their honour at St. Augustine's
Abbey. On the 8th June the royal party went for an expedi-
tion in one of the King's yachts.

Happy as she always was to see her brother, and much as she

enjoyed her sight-seeing, Madame's chief object in this visit was

to influence him in the matter of the secret treaty with France

which had been privately discussed between him and Louis XIV.

for nearly two years. Charles had made several attempts to

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arrange a league with France before the Triple Alliance which
that able diplomatist, Sir William Temple, had brought about
in 1668, and on the day that it was signed Charles wrote to his
sister and said, " Finding my proposition to France receave so
cold an answer, which in effect was as good as a refusal, I
thought I had no other way but this to secure my selfe." Very
soon after the Duke of Buckingham commenced to enter
into projects with the Duchess of Orleans for defeating the
ends of the Triple Alliance, and the Duke of York, who had
just joined the Church of Rome, fell in with their plans, out of
zeal for his new religion. Early the next year King Charles,
impatient at the delays of France, took the affair into his own
hands, and continued the correspondence with the Duchess of
Orleans, sending her a cypher " very easy and secure," He
wished she could come to England and " then things might
have been adjusted." Louis wrote to Charles that " he was
happy in the Duchess of Orleans being the mediatrix," and thus
it came about that the meeting at Dover was pre-arranged.
Charles suggested that Turenne should be of the party to fix
the plan of war, but Colbert dissuaded him from this project, as
a thing likely to produce comment. Sir Richard Bellings, the
Queen's secretary, was employed by King Charles to draw up
the treaty.

The English King, who loved the PVench and hated the
Dutch, agreed to support Louis XIV. in his plans against the
United Provinces (the acquisition of Holland having always
been one of the favourite projects of Le Grand Monarque), and
dt the same time to back the French interests in Spain ; Louis
on his side engaging to give Charles such pecuniary aid as
would make him independent of his Parliament, and promising
that, should an insurrection break out in England, he would

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send an army to assist him at his own cost. At this time
there was no standing army in England, and there were
not sufficient troops to protect Whitehall against the rising of
the mob, and Pepys writes soon after the Restoration, "The
King is not able to set out five ships at this time without great
difficulty, we neither having money, credit, nor stores."

On his accession Charles found himself in a state of great
embarrassment, and all his adherents, and those who had helped
him in his long wanderings, as well as many who had done
nothing for him, were expecting to be recouped for moneys
they had either lost or paid. His first Parliament did little
to remove his difficulties, notwithstanding their fervent ex-
pressions of loyalty. It was to relieve himself from these
worries that he became the husband of Catherine of Braganza,
but the funds which this alliance placed in his hands were in
great part swallowed up by the expense of the armament
despatched to assist the Portuguese fleet, and by the preparations
for taking possession of Bombay, ceded to the King on his
marriage. The financial embarrassment was as bad as ever in
a few months. Carte declared he " proved to demonstration
that Charles's revenue, even though it had been managed with
economy, was inadequate to the expenses of his government."
The Commons alone could legally make him grants, and this
they would not do without interfering with all his prerogatives,
and he was bent on emancipating himself from their control.
Dalrymple says : " In an evil hour for Charles, Clarendon had
taught him in the very first years of his reign to receive money
from France unknov/n to his people." These were the
inducements which led to the ignominious treaty which has
been called the " Traite de Madame." It was signed at Dover
on the 1st of June, 1670, by Colbert and the four English

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Commissioners, Clifford, Arlington, Arundel, and Bellings, and
was soon after ratified by the private seals of the two kings.
A stipulation was made in the treaty that Charles should
avow himself a Catholic ; he suggested that he should do so
before he declared war against the Dutch, but the French King
wished the declaration of war to come first. It was left to
the Duchess of Orleans to negotiate concerning this matter,
with the result that Charles gave way.

Ten days later Madame left Dover, but not before she had
her portrait painted by Henri Gascar, a French portrait-painter
then visiting England. This picture, which represents her as
Diana, and is seven feet three by five feet, was painted for her
brother the King : it now belongs to the Duke of Richmond,
his descendant, and is at Goodwood House.

Madame had a profusion of fair hair, bright blue eyes, a
beautiful nose, perfect teeth, and a complexion " petri de lis
et de roses," which Lord Chesterfield said was unparalleled.
Benserade the poet writes : " Madame brillait comme une
rose panachee dans un parterre de fleurs " ; but it Vv'as not so
much for beauty that she was celebrated as for her indescribable
charm and that "je ne sais quoi " which is more than beauty.
Her infinite grace and the winning sv\'eetness of her manners,
combined with much wit and great intelligence, gained all hearts.
The best description of her is given by Cosnac, Bishop of
Valence, who summed up by saying she was the most perfect of
women and had divine qualities.^ She was undoubtedly a great
flirt, and many lovers were attributed to her ; she had had none
of the usual pleasures of youth when at sixteen years of age
she was married to a man whom no right-minded woman could

^ Cosnac went to Holland to buy up the whole edition of a libel which was
published there called llistoire galante de M. et du Comte de G.

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do anything but loathe and despise, so that she threw herself,
sometimes rather recklessly, into the manners and customs of
the day. But Lord Chesterfield said that, though her discourses
would charm an anchorite, something of majesty about her
would stifle the breath of any unruly thought, and on her
deathbed she solemnly averred to her worthless husband that she
had never been unfaithful to him.

When she left Dover she wept bitterly at parting from her
brother, who loaded her with presents and three times bid his
dear " Minette," as he called her, a fond farewell, as if he could
not let her go. The poet Waller wrote an ode on her departure
from Dover, and presented it to her as she was about to sail.
It ended with these words : —

" Eut we must see our glory snatched away,
And with wann tears increase the guilty sea ;
No wind can favour us, howe'er it blows,
We must be wretched, and our dear treasure lose ;
Sighs will not let us half our sorrows tell.
Fair, lovely, great and best of nymphs, farewell."

Little did any of her friends at Dover think how soon these
prophetic words would be realised : in three weeks' time this
enchanting creature was snatched away for ever, to the infinite
grief not only of France but of all Europe. Her end was very
sudden. She was only seriously ill for nine hours, but during
that time had the most agonising pain,^ which gave rise to the
belief that she had been poisoned. This, however, was certainly
not the case. A post-mortem examination took place before the
English Ambassador, at which, besides the French doctors, Dr.

' The Conite de Trcville, who was a witness of her death, was in such a terrible
state of mind that he had to be taken away from St. Cloud, and iie ultimately
became a monk.

HMNRI CASCAK, pinx.

Henriette, DucHiissi-: d'Oklhaxs (■ .Madami:.")
From a pictuic in possession of the Duke of Riclimond)

The Real Louise de Keroualle

Hugh Chamberlain, and Boscher a surgeon, both sent by King
Charles, assisted. Boscher, though he found no traces of poison,
thought that Madame had been very unskilfully treated. She
was always delicate, the circumstances of her birth being enough
to account for this. She came into the world in the midst of
terrors, being born at Exeter soon after the Queen her mother,
more dead than alive, had taken refuge there for fear of falling
into the hands of the Parliamentarians, and it was then that
King Charles I. wrote the pathetic little note to Sir Theodore
iMayerne, his chief physician, which still exists : " Mayerne, for
the love of me go to my wife.— C.R." Sir Theodore, though
very ill himself, went at once to Exeter, and took with him Sir
Martin Lister. They found Henrietta Maria with fever and a
sort of paralysis, and it was then that Madame first saw the
light. She never was strong, and had a slight though imper-
ceptible curvature of the spine. The fatigue of the royal
progress through Flanders had greatly tried her, and it was
noticed at the time how ill she looked, but her wonderful
vivacity and high spirits deceived many of those around her.
On her return to St. Cloud she had, greatly against the advice
of her doctor, taken to bathing in the river, which had very bad
results, and her death was due to what would now be called
"acute peritonitis."

St. Simon, in his AUmoires, maintains that she was poisoned,
but his testimony cannot weigh against those of magistrates,'
bishops, and all the doctors who were present at the time and
at the post-mortem examination, whereas St. Simon was not then
born, and wrote his account seventy years after the event.

Madame bore her sufferings with the greatest patience and
fortitude. Almost her last words were, that the only regret
she had in quitting this world was leaving her brother Charles.

Z2 c

The Real Louise de Keroualle

"Je Tai toujours aime plus que ma vie, et je n'ai nulle autre
regret en la perdant que celui de le quitter." When all hope
was over Mademoiselle de Montpensier went to Madame's
husband, and asked that she might have another confessor, as the
Cure of St. Cloud, who had been in to see her, only remained
with the dying woman such a short time. " Vous avez raison,"
said the heartless man. "Son confesseur est un Capucin, qui
n'etait bon qu'a faire figure dans un carosse aux voyages pour
dire qu'il y en avait un ; mais il faut autre chose a la mort ;
qui enverrons-nous chercher qui eut un bon air a mettre dans
la Gazette qui eut assiste Madame a la mort ^ Ah ! j'ai trouve
le fait : I'Abbe Bossuet, qui est nomme a I'Eveche de Condom,
est habile homme, homme de bien. Madame lui parlait quelque-
fois, cela sera tout a fait bien." When Bossuet was suggested,
Madame expressed great eagerness to see him. She had been
deeply impressed, the year before, by the sermon he had preached
at her mother Queen Henrietta Maria's funeral at Chaillot,
and ever since then had gone to him regularly three times a
week for religious instruction. Meanwhile her friend Madame
de la Fayette had sent for Monsieur Feuillet, a stern Jansenist
priest, who was with Madame for a long time, and spoke to her
of her mode of life in very severe terms. After she had
received Extreme Unction, Bossuet arrived. He was far more
tender and sympathetic. His first words were " L'esperance,
I'esperance," and he brought great comfort to the poor troubled
soul and remained with her for an hour till the end came. In
writing to his brother he gave a touching account of her last
moments, in which she showed such courage and fervent piety
that he was greatly overcome. She gave him on her deathbed
a large emerald ring, which he ever after wore. It remained for
him to immortalise her by the magnificent " Oraison P'unebre,"

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which he so eloquently delivered at her funeral — his masterpiece,
many passages of which have often been quoted. "Madame,
cependant, a passe du matin au soir ainsi que I'herbe des champs.
Le matin elle fleurissait ; avec quelle grace, vous le savez, le
soir nous la vimes sechee " ; and again, " Madame fut douce
envers la mort, comme elle I'etait envers tout le monde " ; and
again, " O nuit desastreuse ! O nuit efFroyable ou retentit tout
a coup comme un eclat de tonnerre cette etonnante nouvelle,
' Madame se meurt, Madame est morte.' "

The Duchess of Orleans was buried with greater state, it
is said, than any previous royal personage, and Madame de
Sevigne wrote that " Heaven could not have more exquisite
music than Lulli and his violins provided for the ceremony."

The news of Madame's death was in the first instance con-
veyed to King Charles by Sir Thomas Armstrong, a young
Englishman who happened to be in Paris at the time,^ and who
relates with what a violent outburst of grief the King received
the intelligence. Charles loved his sister better than any one
else, and had always from his earliest childhood kept up a most
loving correspondence with her, and at the news of her death
he took to his bed for many days. At first he believed the
rumour that she had been poisoned, but after he had seen the
Marechal de Bellefonds, who was with Madame till her death
and her special friend, he was quite disabused of his erroneous
idea.

And now to go back to Mademoiselle de Keroualle. In her
capacity of Maid-of-honour she was a witness of the agonising
scenes of her beloved mistress's end, and was present at the

^ Sir Thomas Armstrong afterwards attached himself to the Duke of
Monmouth, and is often alluded to in the Diary of Henry Sidney. He was
executed in 1684 for his participation in the Rye-House Plot. He had escaped
into Holland, but was apprehended at Leyden and brought back to London.

The Real Louise de Keroualle

funeral. Soon after she had to think of her own future, and
again life in a convent seemed to be the only thing in store for
her, but before long another alternative was suggested, which
she accepted, no doubt with deep gratitude. This was to go
to England, and be one of the Maids-of-honour to Queen
Catherine of Braganza.

It was said that, when Madame was leaving Dover, King
Charles asked her for a jewel in memory of her visit. She sent
Mademoiselle de Keroualle to fetch her jewel-case, and when
the Maid-of-honour returned with it, the King, bowing over
the hand of the pretty girl, said, "This is the jewel I wish you
would leave me." It is probable, therefore, that Charles had
expressed admiration of the young French girl, which suggested
the idea to Colbert that she might become a valuable auxiliary
at the English Court, and so it was arranged to the satisfaction
of both parties.

The Duke of Buckingham, who had been sent to France
as Envoy at the time of the Duchess of Orleans' death, was to
join Mademoiselle de Keroualle at Dieppe and take her over
to England, but it is said that, with his usual carelessness, he
forgot his engagement ! anyhow he crossed by Calais, and the
young lady was left at Dieppe for several weeks. When he
heard of it, Montagu, the English Ambassador at Paris, immedi-
ately sent over for a yacht, and ordered some of his own people
to convey her to London, where she arrived in August 1670,
and was received at Whitehall by Lord Arlington.

This same month Colbert, the French Ambassador, writes to
Leonne as follows : " The King is always finding opportunities
to talk with this beauty in the Queen's room, but he has not
yet gone up to chat with her in her own room." Reresby gives
us a delightful picture of Mademoiselle de Keroualle, and says

Louise de Keroualle, Dlchess ok Poris.mouth.
(From a painting by Henri Gascar belonging to Lord Talbot de Malahide)

The Real Louise de Keroualle

that " the sweet languor of her childish face and her refined
charm of manner was a new experience for Charles." Her
gentle manners, low voice, and sad eyes, combined with great
freshness and a delicate, high-bred look, formed a pleasant
change from the bad temper and boldness of the imperious
though beautiful Lady Castlemaine, or the vulgar hilarity of
saucy Nell Gwyn, delightful though she was in her way.

The King's intercourse with the Maid-of-honour continued
on this footing for more than a year. Colbert, writing to
Louvois on October 8, 1671, deplores the platonic nature
of Mademoiselle's friendship with the King. St. Evremont,
to whom Louise had been told to look for advice, urged her
to give way. In his Probleme a rimilation des Espagnols,
which he dedicated to her, he says : '* II y a bien de la peine
a passer la vie sans amour. Laissez-vous aller a la douceur
des tentations, au lieu d'ecouter votre fierte. Ce n'est pas la
vertu rigide qu'il faut poursuivre, mais I'art d'accomoder deux
choses qui paraissent incompatible, I'amour et la retenue. La
retenue consiste a n'aimer qu'une personne a la fois, cela est se
donner ; on s'abandonne en ayant plusieurs amans : de cette
sorte de bien comme des autres, I'usage est honnete et la
dissipation est honteuse." This specious philosophy was only
one of the many influences brought to bear upon the scruples
of Louise, who was only now twenty-one years of age, and
there does not appear to have been a single person who
advised her to keep the path of virtue. It devolved finally
upon a woman to effect her moral ruin, no doubt with a view
to her own and her husband's aggrandisement. The Countess
of Arlington, who was Dutch, arranged with Colbert that he
should bring Mademoiselle de Keroualle to stay with her
and Lord Arlington at Euston in October (i 671), during the

The Real Louise de Keroualle

time that the King was at Newmarket for the race meeting,
which arrangement was accordingly carried into effect, John
Evelyn was at Euston, and describes the party. The Queen
and a large number of ladies of high rank, nobles, and courtiers,
altogether more than two hundred persons, were entertained
in a princely way for fifteen days. The Queen did not go
to the races, but spent a good deal of her time hunting and
hawking. Sometimes she was accompanied by Mademoiselle de
Keroualle, to whose physical attractions she made an unfortunate
foil. Louise is described as of medium height, and at this
time very slender. She had masses of very dark hair, with
lighter shades in it which shone like bronze, lovely eyes with
an interesting expression, an oval face, small features, pearly
teeth, and a particularly white skin. The Queen was excessively
short in stature and broad, her complexion olive, and her teeth,
which protruded, were very bad. In some MS. notes before
us, written in the eighteenth century, we are told that the old
Vicomtesse Longueville {nee Barbara Taylor of Laycock),
who died in 1763 nearly a hundred years old, used to tell
many anecdotes of Charles II. 's Queen, whom she described
as " a little ungraceful woman, so short-legged that when she
stood upon her feet you would have thought that she was
on her knees, and yet so long-waisted that when she sat down
she appeared a well-sized woman."

The King came over every other day, and sometimes supped
and slept at Euston, and made no secret of his attentions to
the youthful Maid-of-honour.

November 21, 1671, found Mademoiselle de Keroualle
back at Whitehall and giving an audience to Colbert de Croissy,
the French Ambassador, who came to offer her the formal
congratulations of Louis XIV. " J'ai donne bien de la joie

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a Mademoiselle de Keroualle," he writes to Louvois, "en
I'assurant que sa Majeste serait tres aise qu'elle se maintint
dans les bonnes graces du Roi." At the same time the French
King sent Lady Arlington a necklace of pearls in grateful
recognition of her delicate services ! No wonder that any
scruples which Louise had became blunted.

Her fortune had been foretold according to Madame de
Sevigne, who wrote to her daughter in March 1672, " Ne trou-
verez-vous point bon de savoir que Keroual dont I'etoile avait
ete devinee avant qu'elle partit, I'a suivie tres fidelement. Le
roi d'Angleterre I'a aimee, elle s'est trouvee avec une legere
disposition a ne le pas hair." A propos oi this, Monsieur Jean
Le Moine says in writing of Louise de Keroualle in the Revue
des Deux Mondes, " Ne nous en laissons point trop imposer
par son autorite : des Rabutin elle (Madame de Sevigne) avait
I'esprit caustique et une jalousie particuliere pour cette
Bretonne (Louise) qui fit une carriere plus brillant que
Madame de Grignan." Startling as it sounds, Madame de
Sevigne was undoubtedly jealous for her daughter of Mademoi-
selle de Keroualle's position. We have the authority of Bussy
Rabutin, Madame de Sevigne's cousin and dear friend, tor
stating that the friends of Mademoiselle de Sevigne, a girl
whom Bussy calls " La plus jolie fille de France," wished for
no better fate than that she should occupy the same position
in France as Louise de Keroualle did in England. Some of
Bussy's letters " s'agit des bruits que Ton faisait courir sur
I'inclination du roi (Louis XIV.) pour Mademoiselle de
Sevigne," and Madame de Montmorency writes to him on
the 15th July, 1668, as follows: "Pour des nouvelles . . .
d'un autre cote La Feuillade fait ce qu'il peut (aupres du
Roi) pour Mademoiselle de Sevigne." To which letter Bussy

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answers on the 17th July, "Je serais fort aise que le roi
s'attachat a Mademoiselle de Sevigne car la demoiselle est
forts de mes amies et il ne pourrait etre mieux en maitresse."

On the 29th July, 1672, Louise de Keroualle had her only
child, a son. The King was present at his baptism, and gave
him his own Christian name, " Charles," and the surname of
" Lenox " or " Lennox."

Soon after her son's birth Louise petitioned the King for

leave to become an English subject, and the following year

(1673) in August was created by King Charles, Baroness of

Petersfield, Countess of Farnham, and Duchess of Pendennis,

the latter title being immediately changed to that of Duchess of

Portsmouth. Four months later Louis XIV, made her Duchesse

d'Aubigny, with remainder to her descendants. Aubigny-sur-

Nievre in Berri had been given in 1422 by Charles VII., King

of France, to John Stuart (an ancestor of the first Dukes of

Richmond, in consideration of his military services for France,

and at the death of Charles, the last of the Stuart Dukes

of Richmond, Aubigny went back to the crown of France, and

at the same time the title of Duke of Richmond expired, as

Charles Stuart, Duke of Richmond, left no son ; Charles II.

revived the title in the person of his son by Louise de

Keroualle, and created him, by letters patent dated 9th August,

1675, Baron Settrington, Earl of March, and Duke of Richmond

in the county of Yorks, so that the place and the title still kept

together. In 1830 it was legally proved and certified that the act

of 1422 giving Aubigny to John Stuart contained, " aucune

condition de retour," so that King Charles IL had the right of

disposing of it himself as much as he had of the other lands

and titles that the last Duke of Richmond left him, and there

was no necessity for asking Louis XIV. to bestow it on Louise.

WITH HER SON

LoLISH DK KhKoUALLH, DuCHESS OF PoRTSMOl TH,

THE 1st Dukr of Richmond.
(From a paintinc^ in the possession of the Duke of Richmond at Goodwood)

The Real Louise de Keroualle

The Duchess of Cleveland, who had been promised that her
son should be made Duke of Grafton, insisted, with her usual
imperiousness, that he should have precedence over " the
Frenchwoman's son." Charles tried to please both ladies by
suggesting that the two patents should be made simultaneously,
but the Duchess of Portsmouth scored one ! She persuaded
Lord Treasurer Danby to receive her attorney at midnight,
just as he was stepping into his coach to go to Bath, and to
affix the seal to the patent of the Duke of Richmond there and
then ! Next morning the Duchess of Cleveland's lawyer went
to the Lord Treasurer's house to find him gone ! and in con-
sequence the Duke of Richmond has a month and two days
precedence of the Duke of Grafton.

The little Duke of Richmond was furthermore enrolled a
month later amongst the peers of Scotland by the titles of Baron
Methuen of Torbolton, Earl of Darnley, and Duke of Lennox, all
of which titles the present Duke of Richmond continues to hold.

The Countess Marischal, a Scotchwoman, was appointed
his "governess" with a salary of 2000 livres, and afterwards
Richard Duke, the poet, became his tutor. A grant was made
to the young Duke of twelvepence for every chaldron of coal
shipped from the port of Newcastle. This continued to his de-
scendants till 1799, when the right was purchased by the Lords
of the Treasury for an annuity of ^T 19,000, henceforth payable
out of the Consolidated Fund to the Duke and his heirs.

When he was nine years of age the young Duke was elected
and installed a Knight of the Garter. Up till this date (1681)
the K.G.'s wore the blue ribbon round the neck with the
George appendant on the breast, but the Duchess of Ports-
mouth introduced her son to the King with his ribbon over
the left shoulder and the George appendant on the right,

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and his Majesty was so pleased with the alteration that he
ordered it in future to be adopted. Wissing painted the Duke
at this time with the robes of the Garter, and the picture
was engraved in mezzotint by R. Williams.

The Duchess of Portsmouth soon gained immense influence
with the King, and kept the first place in his affections till his
death.

Dr. Airy says : " The Duchess held her own with a certain
dignity against the anger of the Commons, the hatred of the
people, the attacks of politicians, and the waywardness of
Charles, and for many years she was virtually Queen of
England," and he goes on to say that " when the King wanted
refinement, charm of conversation, and delicacy — and it is
a mistake to forget this side of his nature — he retired to
the apartments of the Duchess." She had excellent manners,
never lost her temper, and never wrangled, but if she failed
to carry her point she had recourse to tears. This is alluded
to in the " Essay on Satire," said to be the joint production
of Dryden and Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham. It was, as a
matter of fact, written by the latter, but Dryden got the credit
of it, and a castigation in consequence ! Lord Rochester, thinking
that the poet was the author, had him waylaid and beaten, and
the Duke of Buckingham, in his " Art of Poetry," speaking
of Dryden, says —

"Though prais'd and beaten for another's rhymes,
His own deserve as great applause sometimes."

Louvois, who calls the Duchess of Portsmouth " La Signora

Addolorata," says on one occasion, " Elle versait un torrent de

larmes ; les soupirs et les sanglots coupaient ses paroles. Enfin,

jamais spectacle ne m'a paru plus triste ni plus touchant." This

Charlks Lennox, 1st Dlkf. of Rickmono.
(From a Mezzotint at Swallow Held, hy K- Williams, after Wissiny)

The Real Louise de Keroualle

was when she thought that King Charles's affection for her was
lessening, but other things affected her to tears. At the time
when she was so interested in the passing of the Exclusion Bill,
Sydney in his Diary writes : " The Duchess of Portsmouth is
crying all day for fear the Parliament should be dissolved." If
the melting mood was inefficacious, it was said that fits of
sudden illness were brought into requisition, and Lady Cov/per
in her Diary tells the following story: "Once one of his lords
came and told the King that the doctors declared the Duchess
of Portsmouth could not live half-an-hour, and that she had sent
to him to take his leave of her. He replied, " Gads fish ! I don't
believe a word of it : she's better than you or I are, and she wants
something, that makes her play her pranks over this ; she has
served me so often so, that I am as sure of what I say as part of
her." No doubt this story did not lose in the telling ; anyhow,
when the Duchess was really ill the King was most tender and
attentive. We hear of him during one of her illnesses never
leaving her room during the whole day, and we have before us
some original autograph letters of his to her very tenderly
inquiring after her health when she had not been well. In one
written from Newmarket, he says : —

*' I shall not be out of pain till I know how my dearest gott to
London, and for that purpose I send this expresse to come away
to-morrow morning to bring me word how you have rested after
your journey. I will not trouble you with a long letter now,
knowing how troublesome that is to one indisposed, and pray do
not answer this yourself, except you are out of paine : all I will
add is that I should do myself wrong if I tould you that I love
you better than all the world besides, for that were making a
comparison where 'tis impossible to express the true passion and
kindnesse I have for my dearest, dearest Fubs ! — C.R."

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"Fubs" was no doubt a nickname given to the Duchess by
Kinff Charles, probably in consequence of her increasing em-
bonpoint. One of the King's yachts was called The Fubs or
Fubbs^ and one of the last recorded sailings of his was made
in the Fubbs round the North Foreland about 1680.^

The Duchess had several severe illnesses, but her good
constitution always pulled her through. In May 1676 she went
to Bath for her health, though her journey was postponed
because of the report that small-pox and purple fever were there.
On her return a sort of congratulatory dinner was given in her
honour by the Comte and Comtesse de Ruvigny, who had
a concert afterwards, for which Louis XIV.'s singers had been
sent over from France — Giles La Forest and Godesneche being
accompanied by Lambert, the father-in-law of Lulli.

The following year the Duchess was very ill for many weeks,
and was supposed to be at the last extremity. Madame de
Scudery writes to Bussy Rabutin that, crucifix in hand, the
Duchess of Portsmouth preached to the King and urged him
to change his way of living. The Duchess, however, recovered,
and we do not hear any more of her insistence on this change
of life.

In March 1682 she went to her beloved country, where she
stayed nearly five months, feeling no doubt perfect confidence
that on her return her power would be as great as ever, and as
a matter of fact it was redoubled. The Duchess of Portsmouth
was accompanied on her journey to France by her sister,
Henriette, Countess of Pembroke, and by her son, the youthful

^ An account of this voyage was written by John Gosthng, Minor Canon of
Canterbury, who was the King's guest on board. The weather was very stormy,
and both the King and the Duke of York handled the ropes.

GostHng confided his adventures to Purcell, who in honour of the event wrote
his anthem, " They that go down to the sea in ships."

SIR PETKH I.KI.V, pin

LoL'isH DH Khkoualle, Duchess of Pokis.molth.
(From an etii>raving by S. Freeman)

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Duke of Richmond, whom the French found " charmant et
plein d'esprit." They went over in a yacht from Greenwich to
Dieppe, and then on to Paris, where they had a splendid
reception at Court, which St. Simon describes. " The Duchess
and her son," he says, "were royally received at St. Cloud.
Louis XIV. sent an Envoy to welcome her, and Monsieur went
in person to call upon her. She was at all the royal fetes,
and the King presented her with some very fine earrings which
cost 32,000 livres." " Rien n'est pareil," writes St. Simon, "a
I'acceuil qu'elle recut." Even the Capucines came out from
their convent to meet her with cross, holy water, and incense !
and Madame du Lude, Abbesse de Bellechasse, who had been
Maid-of-honour to the Duchess of Orleans, went to receive her,
embraced her tenderly, and remained with her an hour.

From Paris the Duchess went to Aubigny, then to see her
father and mother, and on to Bourbon with her sister, where
she took the waters and spent the months of May and June.
Bourbon was the fashionable resort of the French aristocracy,
and at this time it was crowded with the " beau monde," but we
are told that the Duchess of Portsmouth eclipsed every one by
the sumptuous manner of her living. She then went to Brittany,
where she bought back the old family estates of Keroualle and
Mesnouales, situated in the Eveche de Leon in Basse-Bretagne,
which her father had been obliged to sell, and two years later
she purchased the Terre du Chastel from the creditors of Henri
Albert de Cosse, Due de Brissac, which had formerly belonged to
the de Rieux, her ancestors on the female side. Before leaving
France she paid another visit to the French Court, and the
Gazette of the 5th July tells us she was driving with the Queen.
The last honour paid to her at this time was a magnificent
banquet given by Croissy-Colbert. It was the end of July 1682

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when the Duchess of Portsmouth returned to London, a greater
personage than ever — after receiving such a reception from Le
Grande Monarque, and being the recipient of that most coveted
of honours, " le tabouret," which every one knows is the right to
sit on a stool in the presence of royalty. Louis XIV. continued to
keep up a correspondence with the Duchess of Portsmouth, and
we have before us a packet of his letters to her, written quite
irrespectively of any political intrigue. The French King always
addresses her as " Ma Cousine," and the letters are of a most
friendly nature. We have also many of her letters to him ; the
matter of these is good, they are well expressed, and she wrote
a fine hand of the large type, but the spelling is atrocious — quite
phonetic. The Ursuline nuns had much to answer for in this
respect ! Good spelling was, however, the exception in those
days, and Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orleans, Louis XIV. 's
sister-in-law, celebrated for her enormous correspondence, writes :
" Bien peu de dames la savent," alluding to what she calls
" ortografFe." " Les frangaises meme font presque toutes des
fautes." This Duchess of Orleans liked the Duchess of Ports-
mouth, and writes : " C'est la meilleure femme de ce genre que
j'ai vue de ma vie ; elle est fort polie et d'un commerce tres
agreable. Du temps de Monsieur nous I'avions souvent a St.
Cloud. Aussi je la connais tres bien." A propos of one of the
Duchess of Portsmouth's visits to St. Cloud, the Duchess of
Orleans in August 1690 tells the following funny story:
" Madame de Portsmouth, que nous avions ici il y a quelques
jours, m'a raconte que le feu roi (Charles II.) avait coutume de
dire : ' Vous voyez bien mon frere quand il sera roi, il perdra
son royaume par zele pour sa religion, et son ame pour de
villaines genipes, car il n'a pas le goust assez bon pour en aimer

de belles,' et la prophetie s'accomplit deja : les royaumes sont a

LouisK i)E Keroualle, Dl'chess ok Pokts.molth.
.(From a portrait in the possession of the Diiko of Richmond at Goodwood)

The Real Louise de Keroualle

vau I'eau et Ton pretend qu'a Dublin il avait deux afFreux
laiderons avec lesquels il etait toujours fourre."

Whilst giving the Duchess of Portsmouth credit for the
ability and solid judgment which enabled her, notwithstanding
the tremendous disadvantages of her nationality and her religion,
to hold her own for so many years, yet we must not believe, as
Mr. Forneron would have us to do, that in matters of foreign
policy King Charles was a puppet in her hands. In the very
able review of Mr. Forneron's History of the Duchess, which
appeared in the Si. James's Gazette some years ago, the writer
says : " The Duchess of Portsmouth is here made the pivot of
European history. At particular junctures, no doubt, her cool
judgment and unfailing tact enabled her to set up an initiative
of her own. In the schemes for the marriage of the Duke of
York she dissented from the policy of Colbert de Croissy and
Louvois, who were pressing the claims of the Duchess of Guise.
Again, she dissuaded King Charles from a premature avowal of
the Roman Catholic faith, but it is idle to accuse her of respon-
sibility for the infamous subservience of the English to the
French Court. ... It is not so much unjust as unhistorical to
accuse 'Madame Carwell' of selling Charles to the French.
That very wide-awake monarch was never sold by anybody except
himself. . . . You may read Mr. Forneron and come away with
the impression that Charles was a puppet who could be worked
at the pleasure of the male and female schemers about him.
His character and conduct we are not concerned to defend,
any more than to write an apology for ' Madame Carwell.'
But his prodigious talents, his practical shrewdness, and, when
he pleased to exercise it, his supple persistence, are as undisputed
as was the victory over all opponents which he secured before
the end of his reign."

The Real Louise de Keroualle

Apropos of the suggestion that King Charles should openly
avow the Roman Catholic religion, the following is very charac-
teristic of him : Colbert writes that the King desired a theologian
to be sent to him from Paris to instruct him in the mysteries of
the Catholic faith, but his Majesty desires that this theologian
may be a good chemist ! As with his uncle Prince Rupert,
chemistry was one of King Charles's favourite pursuits ; he had
his own private laboratory fitted up at Whitehall, and was far
more active there than at his Councils. Sorbieres, who visited
England in 1663, says, even at that early date, "He (the King)
has acquired a knowledge (of science), at which I was surprised
when I was received by his Majesty ; no one did so much
for physical science, and so powerfully incited people to make
experiments." The King showed Sorbieres his " cabinet of
natural and mechanical curiosities," and the telescopes which he
had had erected in St. James's Park.

At the close of 1684, the King was much taken up with
experiments on the property of mercury, and only a few weeks
before his death he was occupied with a process for trying to fix it.
Buckingham, we know, joined him in this hobby —

" Chymist, fiddler, statesman, and buffoon."

Besides chemistry, surgery and medicine greatly interested
King Charles, These tastes he apparently transmitted to his
grandson, Charles Lennox, second Duke of Richmond, who, in
1749, was a Doctor of Physic and a Fellow of the Royal College
of Physicians, as well as a Fellow of the Royal Society, and the
same love of science has come out in more than one of his
descendants in later times.

To go back to Louise, the writer whom we have already

quoted says : " The Duchess of Portsmouth was more clever,

SM< PHTKR LKLY, f-ilix.

ChaisM.es II.
(From a paintino in possession of the Duke of Rirlimoml)

The Real Louise de Keroualle

more successful, and (be it added) more virtuous than her rivals,
and at the same time less popular than any of them. There is
something which extorts an unwilling admiration in the perti-
nacity with which she pursued and finally gained the highest
rank and the fullest recognition in her own country^ as well as
in England." Most of the great families in England recog-
nised her. The Arlingtons, the Sunderlands, the Arundels, the
Cliffords, the Lauderdales, and the young Duchess of York were
her great friends. The Russells, the Cavendishes, and the Butlers
stood aloof. The Duchess of Portsmouth once sent word to
the old Duchess of Ormond that she would dine with her on
such a day ; the honour was not declined, but the Duchess of
Ormond made her granddaughters leave the house, and received
the Duchess of Portsmouth alone with no one but her chaplain !
But it was very seldom that she received any rebuffs. We even
hear of Queen Catherine being her partner at loo, and when
the Act was passed in 1678 obliging all persons to take a test
against Popery, and a proviso was inserted in favour of the
Queen and nine ladies about her person, she required all her
attendants to cast lots, but named the Duchess of Portsmouth
as excepted ; and once when Phyllis Temple, the Maid-of-
honour, was rude to the Duchess, the Queen deprived the
young lady of a quarter's salary. This shows to a certain extent
that the Queen had no special personal animosity against the
Duchess of Portsmouth,^ though the King must have required
all his well-known tact to keep the balance. The following
original letters of his addressed to the Duchess, which we have
before us, show this : —

" My dear Life, — I will come to-morrow either to dinner

* See the statement quoted on page 20.

- The Duchess of Portsmouth always behaved towards the Queen with the
deepest respect.

49 D

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or immediately after, and then wil settel all, but certainly I
shal not mind the Queen when you are in the case. Adieu : I
am yours."

And then the following : —

"My dear Life, — There was a mesage from the Queen
to-day to desire the ladys to dine att their table and to invite
strangers, and there being a good deal of company, I can't come
till after dinner. Adieu, my Life."

It is no wonder, therefore, that the Duchess of Portsmouth
had a certain pride in her position. She considered herself
" maitresse en titre " and quite on a different footing from
Nell Gwyn and such like. Both the Duchess and Nell Gwyn
were at Oxford during the memorable Parliament of 1681,
and it was probably on this occasion that, when some one in
the crowd looked into the Duchess's carriage and called her a

bad name, coupling her with the actress, she said, " Me no ,

if me thought me ware, me would cut mine own throat."

The extravagance of the Duchess seems to have been un-
bounded, and King Charles denied her nothing. Carte tells a
story showing her love of acquisition and his subservience to
her wishes. When the daughter of his sister Henrietta was
engaged to the King of Spain, King Charles ordered the famous
jeweller Laguse to make a fine ornament of gems, which was
to cost _;/^ 1 5,000, and which Lord Ossory was to take her as
a present from his Majesty ; but when the jewel was shown to
the Duchess of Portsmouth, she admired it so much that the
King gave it to her. Evelyn says that " the Duchess of Ports-
mouth's splendid apartments at Whitehall were luxuriously
furnished, and with ten times the richness and glory of the
Queen's, such massy pieces of plate — whole tables, stands, &c.,

I'll-.UKK MU.NARll, pinx.

Louise dh Kekol.allb, Duchess of Portsmouth.

1647—1734.
(From the paintin,i» in the National Portrait Gallery)

I'ltOtO. KMERV WAr.KHR.

The Real Louise de Keroualle

of incredible value ! " and at a later period, in describing her
rooms, he says : " Here I saw the new fabric of French tapestry ;
for design, tenderness of work, and incomparable imitation of
the best paintings, beyond anything I had ever beheld. Some
pieces had Versailles, St. Germain, and other palaces of the
French King, with hunting figures and landscapes, exotic
fowls, and all to the life rarely done. Then for Japan cabinets,
screens, pendule clocks, great vases of wrought plate, tables,
stands, chimney furniture, sconces, branches, braseras,^ &c., all
of a massy silver, and out of number, besides some of his
Majesty's best paintings."

In 1682 these apartments were pulled down and rebuilt
three times to please the Duchess. Their ultimate fate was
destruction by a fire in 1691, which burnt "all the buildings
over the stone gallery at Whitehall to the waterside." Besides
her apartments at Whitehall, the Duchess had a house out of
London — at Kensington — from 1775 till 1788, nearly opposite
Kensington Palace gates, and here she used to retire for change
of air. Afterwards Elphinstone kept a school there, and Dr.
Johnson used to visit him. Then it became a Roman Catholic
boarding-house, in which Mrs. Inchbald died in 1821 ; and in
quite modern times it was a " maison de sante." Now it no
longer exists.

Out of evil good may come, and there is no doubt that
Louise de Keroualle did much to encourage " les beaux-arts " in
England, and greatly advanced the taste of our country by the
introduction of many French artists in various departments.
During the Civil War and the Protectorate, those branches of
trade allied to ornamental art, which bring employment to the

' i.e. brasiere, a movable hearth of silver for coals, transportable into any
room, much used in Spain. (Evelyn's " Fop Dictionary," 1690.)

The Real Louise de Keroualle

higher classes of artisans and mechanics, were wholly extin-
guished, John Addington Symonds talks of " the Puritan
hostility of Culture," and civilisation had gone back many
degrees between the years 1640 and 1660.

The Duchess of Portsmouth had many French workmen
brought over to England, and Colbert helped her to establish royal
workshops. The epoch of Le Grand Monarque was remarkable
in the history of art. Those were the days of Andre Charles
Boule, and the Duchess had his pupils in London ; and Charles
Le Brun, too, of the famous Gobelin factory, a painter by pro-
fession, but who designed for her ormolu mounts. The magnifi-
cent patronage she gave to artists drew them to our shores
in multitudes. Lely was succeeded by Kneller ; the two Vande-
veldes, Varelst, Verrio, Wissing, Gascar, and Laguerre were
amongst those who worked for her. The Duchess also had
over from Paris Le Notre, the French landscape gardener, to lay
out and improve St. James's Park, which King Charles had
begun immediately after the Restoration. It was Le Notre who
planted the avenue of trees at the Mall on the north side of
the Park. The walk on the south side was lined with aviaries
containing birds. Edward Storey was the keeper of the birds
and had a house at the entrance, hence the name Storey's Gate.
Wet or fine. King Charles was in the habit of going out every
morning to feed the ducks in the canal and his other birds,
many of those there now being said to be their descendants.
The King's friends were always lamenting the little care he
took of his health, especially the way he exposed himself to
wet and cold.

It was after a hawking expedition, early in the autumn of
1679, that he had what the doctors called "an intermittent
tertian," and in the following spring his condition caused the

The Real Louise de Keroualle

greatest alarm. The Dowager-Countess of Sunderland, in
writing to Mr. Sidney, on the loth May, says: "I was then,
like most others, out of my wits with the King being ill, and
greater distraction never was anywhere for the time. Thanks
be to God it did not last long; yesterday he was very well, but
I take the less comfort in it, because he had taken the ' Jesuits
powder ; ^ the fits he had did not last above two or three
hours." Young Lady Sunderland (Sacharissa) writes the same
day : " We have all been sadly alarmed with the King being
sick, but he is now very well again, and I hope will continue so,
if he can be kept from fishing when a dog would not be
abroad." Fishing was one of the favourite amusements of
Kmg Charles, and no amount of bad weather stopped him from
pursuing his sport, the Thames at Datchet being one of his
favoured spots. Apparently these fits to which the King was
subject were of the nature of ague, and "Jesuits' powder"
was nothing but quinquinna or Peruvian bark, called also chin-
chona, from its valuable properties having been just estab-
lished in 1640 by the cure of the Comitissa del Cinchon,
wife of the Spanish Viceroy at Peru. It was called "Jesuits'
powder" from the interest the Cardinal de Lugo and the
Jesuits took in its distribution. On its first introduction into
Europe it was reprobated by many eminent physicians; hence
when it was given to King Charles it caused great distrust
in the minds of many bigoted persons. Sir William Temple in
his " Essay on Health " alludes to these suspicions. Sir Leoline
Jenkins, writing a few days after the attack, says : " I had
the honour to see his Majesty perfectly recovered of his
aguish distemper," and he goes on to say " he was abroad
at prayers in the public oratory. He dined with the Queen
and had a very good appetite, and the physicians are in no

The Real Louise de Keroualle

apprehension, blessed be God for it ! of the returning of his
ague."

About four months later King Charles was seized with
" an intermittent fever of so malignant a character that his
life was in danger. Great excitement prevailed, and, of course,
according to the monomania of the period, the illness was
attributed to poison. Lady Sunderland writes : " I believe yet
that there is scarce anybody beyond Temple Bar that believes
his distemper proceeded from anything but poison, though as
little like it as if he had fallen from a horse ... if the Privy
Councillors had not used their authority to keep the crowds
out of the King's chamber he had been smothered : the bed-
chamber men could do nothing to prevent it." The King,
however, speedily recovered under the care of Dr. Micklethwaite,
who was in consequence knighted.

Notwithstanding these warnings King Charles took no
care of himself, and on the 2nd of February 1685 he had a
fit of apoplexy, which was followed by several others ; and
on the 5th it was obvious that he was dying. At first the
Duchess of Portsmouth sat by his bed and supported his head,
but when the Queen came she retired to her own apartments,
and desired Ken, the Bishop of Bath and Wells, to take the
Duke of Richmond, now thirteen years old, to receive his
father's last blessing. The King, we are told, frequently re-
commended the Duchess of Portsmouth and her son to his
successor, " in terms," says Burnet, " as melting as he could
fetch out."

On the second day of the King's seizure, Barillon found
the Duchess in her apartments overwhelmed with affliction, but
instead of speaking of her own grief or her own affairs, she was
keenly anxious for the state of the King's soul. " Nobody,"

The Real Louise de Keroualle

said she, " tells him of his condition or speaks to him of God ;
the Duke of York thinks only of his affairs. Go to him, I
conjure you, and warn him to think of what can be done to
save the King's soul — lose no time, for if it is deferred it will
be too late; the King is really a Catholic, but he will die with-
out being reconciled to the Church, his bedroom is full of
Protestant clergymen."

Whatever religious tendency King Charles had, there can be
little doubt that it was in the direction of Roman Catholicism.
He imbibed its first principles from his mother Henrietta
Maria, who was a devoted mother and a bigoted Catholic, and
it was the religion of the only two other women whom he had
really loved, his sister and the Duchess of Portsmouth, It was
said that Father John Huddleston^ had brought him some
religious works to read during his concealment at Moseley
Hall after he left Boscobel, and certainly King Charles had given
thought to it at times. Two papers written on the subject in
his own hand, and found after his death in his strong box,
showed signs of study and reasoning. The story is well known
of how, in consequence of the Duchess of Portsmouth's
entreaties, the Duke of York managed to introduce privately
into the royal bedchamber a priest, on ascertaining from his
brother that it was his earnest desire ; that the only available
priest happened to be the same Father Huddleston to whom
we have alluded ; and that King Charles died in the profession
of the Catholic faith.

Lord Chesterfield, who was with him during the last forty-

* Father Huddleston, whose name is for ever associated with King Charles II.,
was the second son of Joseph Huddleston of Faringdon Hall, near Preston. When
the King arrived at Moseley Hall, the house of Mr. Thomas Whitgreave, he was
there acting as tutor to two of Mr. Whitgreave's nephews, Francis Reynolds and
Thomas Paylin, and also to Sir John Preston.

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eight hours of his life, says " he died as a good Christian, praying
often for God's and Christ's mercy ; as a man of great and
undaunted courage and as a good-natured man in a thousand
ways," and " hoped," he said, " that he should climb up to
heaven's gates."

On the morning of Friday, the 6th of February 1685, all
the churches were full, and when the prayer for the King was
read, loud groans and sobs showed how deeply he was loved.
The end came quietly at noon. The Duke of York and Mary
Beatrice were with him to the last, and an eye-witness writes
that the new Queen " was a most passionate mourner, and
thought a crown dearly bought with the loss of such a brother,"
her own words being, '* I was so greatly afflicted for the death
of King Charles that I dared not give free vent to my grief,
lest I should be suspected of hypocrisy. I had loved him very
dearly, and with reason, for he was very amiable, and had
shown me much kindness."

Almost the last words that King Charles said to his brother
were to implore him to look after the Duchess of Portsmouth
and her son ; " I have always loved her," he said, " and I die
loving her." The first visit of condolence which the new King
paid was to her, and he gave her many assurances of his
friendship and protection. The Duchess gave herself up to an
agony of grief, which even Macaulay allows " was not wholly
selfish." She continued to hold her apartments at Whitehall,
but six months after King Charles's death she went to Versailles,
where Louis XIV. received her with great kindness. It is said
that she took over with her a large sum of money besides her
jewels, and she lived at first with considerable splendour. When
not in Paris she occasionally occupied the old family house in
Brest, opposite the ancient church in the rue des Sept Saints,

The Real Louise de Keroualle

then the aristocratic quarter of the town, and the Duchess also
went periodically to her chateau of Keroualle, which she had
had decorated with mythological paintings, some of which still
remain on the ceilings, including a representation of the story
of Andromeda and Perseus — the daughter of Cepheus, chained
to a rock, being the likeness, it is said, of herself !

The Duchess was accompanied when she left England by
her young son, the Duke of Richmond, who was then fourteen
years of age. He had been given by King Charles the appoint-
ment of Master of the Horse, which during his minority was
placed in the hands of three commissioners, Henry Guy, Theo-
philus Oglethorpe, and Charles Adderley. But soon after
King James's accession to the throne, the office was removed
from him, at which the young Duke felt so aggrieved that
he left England in great dudgeon, and soon after he arrived in
France became a naturalised French subject. The French Court
was much pleased with him, and the following lines appeared at

the time : —

" Ce n'est pas ta mine charmante,
Aimable My lord, qui m'enchante,
Mais ton esprit, vif et brillant,
Puise dans le sein de ta mere,
Et qui fait que dans cinquante ans,
Comma aujourd'hui tu sauras plaire."

The Duchess was now most earnestly desirous that her son
should embrace the Roman Catholic religion. For this purpose
she wrote to Louis XIV. as to " les moyens de convertir le
due de Richmond," and the King suggested placing him in
the hands of Bossuet, to whom a letter was sent saying, " Sa
majeste est bien persuade que la conversion de M. le due de
Richmond ne peut estre en meilleurs mains que les vostres,
mais elle croit que ce n'est pas assez de lui donner un

The Real Louise de Keroualle

precepteur catholique et de bonnes moeurs si en mesmes
temps on ne congedie son gouverneur huguenot." All this
was accomplished with the desired result. The ceremony of
the young Duke's reception into the Catholic Church was
very impressive. It took place at Fontainebleau on the 2ist
October 1685, and was conducted by M. de Meaux (Bossuet),
whose splendid oratory on this occasion enthralled all his
hearers. He preached on the gospel of the day, taking for
his text Matthew xxii. 20 and Luke xiv. 25, and melted, it
is said, the Court to tears. Madame la Dauphine was in trans-
ports and spoke of nothing else. " Jamais je n'ai ou'f parler
comme il fait," said she ; " il me fait un plaisir que je ne puis
exprimer, et plus je I'entends plus je I'admire." Twelve years
later, to the great grief of his mother, the Duke of Rich-
mond declared himself a Protestant, his re-conversion to the
Anglican Church taking place in Lambeth Palace on Whit-
sunday, May 15, 1692. The Duke had returned to England
on the accession of William III., and the following year took
his seat in the House of Lords. King William is said to
have taken a great fancy to him. He made him one of his
aides-de-camp, and as such the young Duke saw active service
in Flanders, and was at the battles of Steinkerque and Ner-
winde, where he gave great proofs of valour.

Konigsm.arck writes from the camp at Halle to a friend
as follows : " In a previous letter I told you that there were
very few distinguished-looking men in the train of the King
or the Elector ; but if I had seen the Duke of Richmond (now
in his twenty-first year), son of the Duchess of Portsmouth,
sooner, I should not have said so, for he is the most charming
youth. He unites to perfect manners an air of great distinction;
he is well-made, and has a handsome face and fine eyes."

Chakm:s LiiNNox, First Dlkb of Richmond.

From a Mezzotint at S-walhm'jicld fiy I. Fatcr, after the Fainting by Sir Godfrey h'neller, Fart. (1731).

The Real Louise de Keroualle

Spring Macky describes the Duke ^ some years later as
" a gentleman good-natured to a fault, very well-bred, with
many good things in him, an enemy to business, very credulous,
well-shaped, black complexion, much like King Charles."
Swift calls him " a shallow coxcomb." The Duke's manners,
learnt at the Court of Versailles, were not likely to appeal to
the Dean. Hearne lamented that the Duke of Richmond
was " a man that struck in v/ith everything that was Whiggish
and opposite to true monarchical principles." He certainly
did not approve of his uncle King James's measures, and was
one of those who joined the celebrated association called
the Kit-Cat Club, which pre-eminently laboured for the Pro-
testant succession. His portrait, painted by Kneller, hung over
the chimneypiece at Barn Elms in Surrey, the house of
Jacob Jonson, the secretary, where the club often met.

The Duke married, on the loth January 1693, when he
was only twenty-one, Anne, Lady Belasyse, a widow of twenty.
She was nee Bruce, the daughter of Francis, Lord Brudenell,
son and heir of the Earl of Cardigan (whom he predeceased),
and her first husband was Henry, second Baron Belasyse of
Worlaby. There are several portraits of her at Goodwood
by Kneller and Lely, one of which we give here.

The Duchess of Portsmouth was very friendly with her
daughter-in-law, and we have before us most affectionate letters
that passed between them. The Duchess was sponsor to the
eldest daughter of her son, born in 1694, and called Louise
after her, the christening taking place at St. James's, Piccadilly,
and she lived to see her married to James, Earl of Berkeley,
and become the mother of two children ; but she must have
been rather shocked at her bad manners, for Lady Louise
' " Characters of the Court of Great Britain.'

The Real Louise de Keroualle

appears to have been a wild tomboy ! Swift in his " Journal

to Stella" writes, on the 6th June 171 1, about a practical

joke played on him by her which does not sound dignified

for a married woman, though it is fair to say she was only

sixteen. The Dean writes: "It put me in as perfect a passion

as ever I was in my life at the greatest affront or provocation.

I dined with Lady Betty Germain and there was the young

Earl of Berkeley and his fine lady. I never saw her before

nor think her near so handsome as she passes for. Lady

Berkeley after dinner clapped my hat on another lady's head,

and she in roguery put it upon the rails. I minded them not,

but in two minutes they called me to the window, and Lady

Carteret showed me my hat out of her window five doors

off, where I was forced to walk to it and pay her and old

Lady Weymouth a visit Vv'ith some more bell-dames." This

little hoyden, we conclude, must have sobered down, as in two

years she was appointed Lady-of-the-Bedchamber to Caroline,

Princess of Wales. If her life was a merry one it was of

short duration, for three years later it came to an end,

small-pox carrying her off at the age of twenty-three.

The first Duke of Richmond must have rented Goodwood

from the Compton family before he bought it in 1720, as when

the Grand Duke of Tuscany came on a visit to William III., that

King took him there to stay with the young Duke, and they

hunted together with the Charlton pack of hounds, the first ever

established in this country. Charlton, which is near Goodwood,

was the Melton-Mowbray of the day, and was brought into fashion

by the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth, who hunted there

when staying with Ford, Lord Grey, and these two kept a couple

of packs of foxhounds at Charlton. The writer's grandfather

had a gamekeeper who died in 1 807 aged ninety-four, who had

The Real Louise de Keroualle

heard his grandfather speak of Monmouth and his particular
love for Charlton, the Duke saying to him jestingly that when
he was King he would come and hold his court there ! — so
early were his hopes of the Crown alluded to. A letter still
extant, dated February 17, 1670, from Bishop Carlton to the
Metropolitan, makes apologies for the apparent want of loyalty
shown by the inhabitants of Chichester, who made so much of the
Duke of Monmouth and received him with bonfires and ringing
of bells and finally conveyed him in state to the Cathedral 1

Lord Burlington built a banqueting-hall at Charlton for the
votaries of the chase, which was called Foxhall, from the gilt
fox surmounting a tall flagstaff erected in front of it — a gift
from Henrietta, Duchess of Bolton, Monmouth's daughter, who
was a constant visitor there. The first Duchess of Richmond
with her daughter. Lady Anne Lennox, held evening assemblies
at Foxhall, and at one of them the Duchess of Portsmouth was
present. Soon after the Duchess of Richmond died, and the
Duke only outlived her a few months, dying in 1723 at the age
of fifty-one. The Duke was buried in Henry VII. 's chapel in
Westminster Abbey, but in 1750 his body was moved to the
vault under Our Lady's Chapel in the Cathedral at Chichester.
On a tablet at the end of this vault is this inscription : —

" Sibi et suis posterisque eorum hoc Carolus Richmond dive ; Sivi nias
et Albiniaci dix anno erve christianae mdccl. Hoce est domus ultima."

The concluding words gave rise to the following epigram : —

" Did he, who thus inscribed this wall.
Not read, or not believe, St. Paul r
Who says there is — where'er it stands —
Another house not built with hands ;
Or may we gather from these words.
That house is not a house — for Lords ! "
61

The Real Louise de Keroualle

Although the Duchess of Portsmouth lost her son and his
wife, she survived to see many of her grandchildren and great-
grandchildren, and she always took the keenest interest in their
matrimonial alliances. In 1722 we find her writing about the
marriage of her son's second daughter, Lady Anne Lennox, who
married the following year William Anne Keppel, second Earl
of Albemarle, by whom she became the mother of fifteen chil-
dren ; and the Duchess of Portsmouth, on her last visit to
England, saw her three great-grandsons, the young Keppels,
who were destined to distinguish themselves a few years later
at the capture of the Havana.

But most of all was she interested in her grandson, Charles,
second Duke of Richmond. She had been greatly pleased that his
birth should have occurred on the 29th May (1703), and she
was much taken up about his marriage — arranged so prosaically
and ending so poetically. Like his mother, the first Duke of
Richmond was an inveterate gambler ; he won an immense sum
from Lord Cadogan, that distinguished cavalry officer who fought
with Marlborough. Lord Cadogan could not pay, but he had
two daughters, co-heiresses of the fortune of their mother, who
was a Dutch heiress, daughter of John MOnter of Amsterdam,^
and it was agreed that the gambling debts should be cancelled
if Lord Cadogan gave his eldest daughter. Lady Sarah Cadogan,
as a wife to the Duke's eldest son. Accordingly, as the story
goes, the young Lord March, who was eighteen years of age, was
brought from college, and Lady Sarah, aged thirteen, from her
nursery, for the ceremony. The bride was silent and astonished,
but the bridegroom exclaimed, "Surely you are not going to
marry me to that dowdy ! " Married, however, he was, and directly

^ Margaretta Cecilia Miinter was married to Lord Cadogan at the French
Church at The Hague in 1704.

^lU clODi [(EV KNEr.LER, pi,nx.

Anne, 1st Duchess of Richmoxd.
(From the painting in possession of the Duke of Richmond)

~1K <;(inM<i:v knki.i.i- k, />;

Margahetta Cecilia. 1st Countess Cadogan.
'From a paintino in the possession of the Duke of Riclimond)

The Real Louise de Keroualle

afterwards his tutor took him off to the Continent to make
*' the Grand Tour," and Lady Sarah went back to her mother.
Three years elapsed ; Lord March returned from his travels,
but, having such an uninteresting recollection of his bride, was in
no hurry to claim her, and went the first evening of his return to
London to the Opera, There he noticed that all eyes — and
lorgnettes — were directed to one box where, surrounded by
several persons, sat a most beautiful young creature. Turning
to a man beside him he asked who she was. " You must be a
stranger in London," was the answer, " not to know the reigning
toast of the town, the beautiful Lady March ! " Lord March
lost no time in going to the box and introducing himself to his
bride, with whom he ever after lived so affectionately that their
devotion to each other became proverbial. Thirty-eight years
afterwards Horace Walpole says, a propos of the unusually large
number of children that she gave birth to, " but even this is not
so extraordinary as the Duke's fondness for her, or as the vigour
of her beauty ; her complexion is as fair and blooming as when
she was a bride." When the Duke of Richmond died in 1750
she never rallied from the shock, and followed him to the grave
a few months afterwards. Eight of their children were born
during the life of the Duchess of Portsmouth, and the eldest.
Lady Caroline (born 1723), went with her parents to stay with
her at Aubigny, and as she was eleven years old when her great-
grandmother died, she could remember her perfectly. There
was romance, too, about her marriage : she was one of the four
bridesmaids who supported the train of Princess Augusta on the
occasion of her marriage with Frederick, Prince of Wales, when
we are told she was dressed the same as the bride excepting
the mantle, and wore diamonds of from /!| 20,000 to ^30,000."
At this time Mr. Fox, familiarly known as "Harry Fox," the

The Real Louise de Keroualle

second son of Sir Stephen Fox, fell in love with her and she with
him. His addresses were rejected by the ducal parents with
indignation, for although Mr. Fox had been educated at Eton
and held several more or less important Government offices, his
father was a self-made man, said to have been a chorister boy in
Salisbury Cathedral. Such a mesalliance could not be thought
of, and Lady Caroline was forbidden to see him. Furthermore
the Duke of Richmond, having a desirable suitor on hand, bid
her one day prepare to receive him. Lady Caroline determined
to make herself as unattractive as possible, and for this purpose
shaved off her eyebrows, which appears to have had the desired
effect, and she looked such a figure that her parents told her
she had better keep her room till they had grown again. ^ Left
thus to herself she had some further communication with her
lover, and ultimately eloped and was secretly married to him
in the beginning of May 1744. The marriage took place at
the house of Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, the famous wit,
and the Duke of Marlborough gave her away.

Horace Walpole thus describes the consternation this run-
away match occasioned : " Mr. Fox fell in love with Lady Caroline
Lennox, asked her, was refused, and stole her. His father was a
footman, her great-grandfather a king : ' hinc illas lachrymae ! '
All the blood-royal have been up in arms. ... If his Majesty's
Princess Caroline had been stolen there could not have been
more noise made."

Lady Caroline was not forgiven by her parents for four years,
till after the birth of her eldest son, when they wrote her a
delightful letter, ending with these words: —

"So, my dear child, you and Mr. Fox may come here at the

^ They certainly did grow again and probably much stronger, for we have a
portrait of her in middle-Hfe in which she appears with far too marked eyebrows.

Charles Lennox, Second Duke of Richmond.

From a Picture by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bart., belonging to the Duke of Richmond.

The Real Louise de Keroualle

time that shall be settled by yourselves, with my Lord Ilchester,
and be both received in the arms of an affectionate father and
mother. "Richmond, &c.

"Sa : Richmond."

This also turned out a thoroughly satisfactory marriage, and
a more devoted couple never existed. They lived together most
happily for thirty years. Mr. Trevelyan says : " Neither of them
ever knew content except in the possession or the immediate
expectation of the other's company, and their correspondence
continued to be that of lovers until their long honeymoon
was finally over. Perfect trust and passionate affection breathe
through every page of the letters, so close upon each other in
date and so ungrudging in length, in which Harry Fox's easy,
kindly, and humorous words lie disordered in the paper, just
as hearty nature speaks them."

Lady Caroline Fox was created Baroness Holland in 1762,
and in the following year Mr. Fox was raised to the peerage as
Baron Holland. At Holland House, which was their home,
there is a door surmounted by an heraldic shield bearing
Lady Holland's arms, with this motto under it : " Re e
Marito," in allusion to the double source whence she got her
honours.

Lord Holland died in 1774, and Lady Holland survived
him only twenty-three days. Their third son was Charles James
Fox. Another daughter of the second Duke of Richmond, Lady
Louisa Lennox, was the Duchess of Portsmouth's god-child,
and was staying with her in Paris when she died. His sixth
daughter, Lady Emilia Lennox, who married the Duke of Leinster
(then Ireland's only Duke), and had twenty-one children
(including the celebrated Lord Edward Fitzgerald), was also
born during the lifetime of the Duchess of Portsmouth, as also

The Real Louise de Keroualle

their brother Charles, third Duke of Richmond.^ She did not,
however, survive to see the birth of the most celebrated of her
great-granddaughters, Lady Sarah Lennox, who was so nearly
Queen of England, and who was the mother of the Napiers.

We have already alluded to the extravagant tastes of the
Duchess of Portsmouth, and added to this she was an in-
veterate gambler. In 28 Car. II. a patent was issued granting her
a yearly pension of ;^86oo, to be paid out of the revenue of
excise dues upon beer, ale, and other liquors in England, Wales,
and Berwick, and to her executors for one year after her death.
In 1715 a confirmation of this grant by James II. set forth the
reasons why the Duchess had never received it. Then follows
a direction that letters patent under the Great Seal should issue
granting £^600 per annum to the Duchess for her life and
after her death to the Duke of Richmond and Lennox for
thirty and one years after, such sums to be charged on the
revenues of Ireland and to be in bar of the former grant of
;^86oo. The document (now before us) is directed to the
Duke of Grafton and the Earl of Galloway, and is dated from
Dublin, 19th November 171 5, and signed by Sam. Carleton. On
the accession of William III. her pension was stopped, and this,
combined with great losses incurred through Law —

" Cette Ecossais celcbre,
Ce calculateur sans egale,
Qui par les regies de I'algcbre
A mis France a I'hopital " —

brought the Duchess of Portsmouth into serious monetary diffi-
culties. As a romantic writer puts it : "Elle, dont les ancetres
setaient reposes sur les bords du Jourdain, assouvis de gloire

' Charles, third Duke of Richmond, died without male issue, and was
succeeded by his nephew, grandfather of the writer.

SIR GODKHKY KNKII.KR, fln.X.

Sarah, 2xd Duchess of Richmond.
(From the painting in possession of the Dulie of Richmond)

The Real Louise de Keroualle

et de conquetes, et dont I'histoire domestique faisait la moitie
de I'histoire de la Bretagne, elle, enfin, la favorite toute puissante
d'un puissant monarque, elle s'aper9ut que sa fortune se trou-
vait emiettee, pour ainsi dire."

The Duchess was obliged to sell her lands in Brittany, in-
cluding the baronage of Du Chastel and the lands of Keroualle
and Mesnoualles. They were purchased by a rich financier
from Auvergne, Antoine Crozat, who became Marquis de Moiiy
in 1 716. Some of the Du Chastel property had previously
been taken by Louis XIV. for his fortifications at Brest, and
the Duchess had received compensation for them. The Duchess
also appears to have sold some land in 17 15 to Louis Chabot,
due de Rohan, and we have before us an original autograph
document concerning the sale, signed " Louise Renee de
Penancoyt, D^^" de Portsmouth et d'Aubignie," and " Charles
Lenos, due de Richmond, le 14 aout 17 15." It alludes to land
at Lesnuen, Sesteurieur (?), Landernean, and Coetmeal, and
speaks of" 10 mille livres de rente viagere."

In 17 1 8 the Regent added 8000 livres to her French
pension, equal to ;^8oo a year, St. Simon says : " Elle etait
fort vieille, tres convertie et penitente, tres mal dans ses
affaires," &c.

At the death of her son the Duchess of Portsmouth went
to Aubigny, where she lived for the next ten years a very
retired life, giving herself up to religion and good works. She
founded a convent of " Religieuses Hospitalieres," which still
exists, and she gave land near Vannes for the Carmelites of
Nazareth. She saw few visitors, but the Duke of Richmond,
her grandson, and his wife, and other members of her family
often visited her.

In 1730 the Duchess was very ill, and the following letter

The Real Louise de Keroualle

was written to the Duke of Richmond by the cure of
Aubigny : —

" MonsL'igneur, je suis charme de donner a votre grandeur
de meilleures nouvelles de la sante de Madame la Duchesse.
II y avait tout bien de craindre des suites facheuses d'une
maladie aussi lente ; elle a souffert dix jours de suites des
douleurs les plus vives : pendant ce temps elle a ete saignee au
bras et au pied, ou iuy a donne pres de trente remedes, et elle
a ete mise dans le bain sept ou huit fois: il faut etre d'un tempera-
ment des plus forts pour avoir soutenu tous ses remedes comme
elle a fait. Je ne fais point de doute que si la fievre fut
survenue qu'elle aurait fallu ceder. A present elle est sans
douleur."

The Duchess seems to have quite recovered from this illness,
as in March of the following year (1732) she entertained for a
week at Aubigny two English travellers, Mr. G. Shirley ^ and
a young Mr. Cross," and the former writes to the Duke of
Richmond : " We found her Grace ye good old lady you described
her to be ; " and he goes on to say, " she was very good and
obliging and made us very happy for a week."

The Duchess's last visit to England was in 1732-3. After
that she again fell ill, and came to Paris to consult doctors, but
they were not able to cure her, and she died there on the 14th
November 1734, in her house in the rue des Saints Peres at
the corner of the rue de Verneuil in the parish of Saint Sulpice.
At the time of her death the Duchess of Portsmouth was eighty-
five years old and two months; she retained all her faculties to
the last as well as great remains of beauty. Voltaire, who saw

* Probably the Hon. George Shirley of Lower Eatington, Captain of the ist
Foot Guards. He married Mary, daughter of Humphrey Sturt.

* Probably Crosse of Shaw Hill, Lancaster, who was related to Mr. Shirley
through the Leghs of Adlington.

The Real Louise de Keroualle

her when she was seventy, describes her as still surprisingly
beautiful, " avec une figure encore noble et agreable que les
annees n'avaient point fletrie ;" and George Selwyn, who met her
at Richmond in 1733 when she was eighty-four, says she was
then possessed of many charms.

The Duchess wrote her own will — a very long one — on
the 13th February 173 i. It begins as follows : —

" Pleinement convain^u de la certitude de la mort, dans la
crainte d'en etre surprise sans avoir fait connaitre mes dernieres
intentions sur le peu de bien que j'ai a dispenser, je, Louise
Renee de Penancoyt de Queroualle, Duchesse de Portsmouth et
d'Aubigne, fait et ecrit volontairement sans inducsion ni sug-
gestion de personne mais dans la seule vue de plaire a Dieu, le
suppliant de m'accorder le pardon de tous mes peches et la
grace de mourir la mort des justes qui est precieux dans ces
yeux."

She desires not to be buried until she has been bled after her
death, a mass to be said every day for a year for the repose of
her soul, the chanoines to say a hundred masses, the Rev.
Father Augustin ditto, and the same at Oysson and at Guylar.
She leaves money to the poor at Aubigny and an ornament for
its church.

Her grandson, the Duke of Richmond, was her universal
legatee.

" Mon lesgastaire (sic) universel, monsieur le due de
Richemond, mon petit-fils, en consequence de ce que M. le due
de Richmond, son pere, avait ete legitime par le feu roy Louis
XIV., lui, ses enfans et ses successeurs, pour pouvoir succede
a mes biens et je le fait avec d'autant plus de raison que je
puis rendre temoignage comme je le fait et le rend a ma
conscience que tous les efFets dont je despense en sa faveur

The Real Louise de Keroualle

viennent de la liberalite de feu Charles Seigneur, roy d'Angle-
terre, qui me les avait donnes a la charge d'en conserver la
propri^te a feu M. le due de Richmond."

The Duchess left legacies to all her servants alive past and
present, mentioning every one by their full name and occupation,
also to all her French nephews and nieces, amongst them the
Marquis de Thois, I'Abbe de Gouffier, Marianne, widow of Louis
de Bourbon, the Comte de Bussy, Mme. Marie de Poulpry, &c.
Apparently, when very near her end, she thought she had
forgotten some, and two days before she died she sent her
secretary at two o'clock in the morning to fetch the notary in
order to make some fresh codicils.

Louise de Keroualle was buried in the Eglise des Carmes
Dechauss6s, in the chapel of the Maison de Rieux, amongst her
illustrious ancestors.

We cannot finish this sketch better than by quoting from
an eminent French author, who, talking of Louise de Keroualle,
says : " Si Ton essaie de juger la duchesse de Portsmouth dans
cet esprit d'impartialite, en tenant comte des passions de son
temps et du milieu ou elle vivait, il y a certainement a retoucher
de nombreux traits de son portrait. Demeurant entendu qu'il
est blamable d'etre maitresse royale et qu'il vaut mieux se
marier honnetement dans son village, on reconnaitra que pour
le devenir elle eut toutes les circonstances attenuantes : la
pauvrete, I'opinion de ses contemporains sur les amours royales,
une longue resistance, I'interet de son roi et de sa religion, et
I'insistance de tout son entourage," and surely to these induce-
ments may be added the fascination of the man as apart
from the glamour of the monarch, a fascination acknowledged
by all, and which even Macauhiy says " was not easy for the

most austere Republican to resist."

The Real Louise de Keroualle

It is remarkable, as Monsieur Le Moine says, " avec quel
soin vindicatif et impitoyable ont ete relevees ses moindres
faiblesses." This is indeed the case, her vindictive detractors
have even taken the trouble to bring the charge of " gour-
mandise " against her. But the culminating point remains with
her latest biographer who, not content with collecting together
all the charges ever made against her — many of them absolutely
untrue, and taken from a source so puerile in its palpably false
assertions as to be beneath refutation ^ — now descends to impugn
her ancestry and disparage her father !

Even those who wish to hang the proverbial dog by giving
him a bad name, do not think it necessary to deny his good-
breeding when he is a thoroughbred !

Poor Louise de Keroualle may be allowed her pedigree if
nothing else. R, I. P.

* Histoire Secrete de la Duchesse de Portsmottth.

"CHE SARA, SARA," OR FOUR
TRAGEDIES IN ONE FAMILY

"The bridesmaids, especially Lady Caroline Russell, Lady
Sarah Lennox, and Lady Elizabeth Keppel, were beautiful
figures," Thus writes Horace Walpole to General Conway
h propos of George IIL's marriage in 1761. The last-mentioned
of these maidens, Lady Elizabeth Keppel, was the youngest
daughter of William Anne, second Earl of Albemarle, and his
wife. Lady Anne Lennox, daughter of the first Duke of Rich-
mond. She had inherited much of the good looks of her
mother and also of her great-grandmother {du cbte gauche)^
Louise de Keroualle, and besides her looks had many fine
qualities which made her generally beloved. One of Sir Joshua
Reynolds' most beautiful portraits is a full-length of her in the
dress she wore as Queen Charlotte's bridesmaid. The picture,
which is at Woburn Abbey, is thus described in the Life of Sir
Joshua by Leslie and Taylor : " Lady Elizabeth Keppel in her
state costume is decorating the statue of Hymen with flowers,
while a negress, whose dark face serves as a foil to the delicate
carnations of her mistress, holds up the massive wreaths. The
picture is of the pearliest colour, warmed by wreaths of cluster-
ing flowers, the sheen of satin and silver ribbons, the sparkle of
diamonds against the white neck and in the soft hair and rose-
tipped ears of the beautiful bridesmaid, the dusky upturned face
of the negress, the crimson awning pendant from the tree that

overhangs the statue, the reflected light in the bronze tripod

]..\[)\ I^l.l/.AHHTH I\K1>PI-:L, AI--rKK\VAKI)S iM ARCH ION HSS OF TaX-ISTOCK.

<rrom a mez/otint at SwallowHekl, by Fisher, after Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A.)

'' Che Sara, Sara "

crowned with its flickering flame." Sir Joshua's whole heart
was in this work, and he was keenly anxious to do justice to the
sister of his life-long friend, Admiral Keppel, in which he
certainly succeeded. Sir Thomas Lawrence said he thought if
it were not Sir Joshua's chef-cT ceuvre^ it could only be equalled
by his portrait of Mrs. Siddons.^ Sir Joshua had previously
painted Lady Elizabeth when she was only fifteen years of age ;
this, which is also a charming picture, is now at Quidenham,
Lord Albemarle's seat in Norfolk. Three years later Lady
Elizabeth Keppel married Francis Russell, Marquess of Tavis-
tock, eldest son of the Duke of Bedford. Horace Walpole
gives the following account of the engagement in a letter to

Lord Hertford : —

" Strawberry Hill,/««^ 8, 1764.

" To be sure you have heard the event of this last week ?
Lord Tavistock has flung his handkerchief, and except a few
jealous sultanas, and some sultanas valides, who had marketable
daughters, everybody is pleased that the lot is fallen on Lady
Elizabeth Keppel. The house of Bedford came to town last
Friday. . . . The next morning Lady Elizabeth received a note
from the Duchess of Marlborough, Lord Tavistock's sister,
insisting on seeing her that evening. When she arrived at
Marlborough House, she found nobody but the Duchess and
Lord Tavistock. The Duchess cried, ' Lord 1 they have left
the window open in the next room ! ' went to shut it, and shut
the lovers in too, where they remained for three hours. The
same night all the town was at the Duchess of Richmond's.
Lady Albemarle was at Tredille ; the Duke of Bedford came
up to the table, and told her he must speak to her as soon as

' It is fair to the reputation of an unknown artist to say that the draperies in
this picture which are so beautifully painted were the work of one " Toms," for
which he only received twelve guineas. This clever "Drapery man "took to
drink and committed suicide in 1776. The picture has been beautifully engraved
by Fisher.

" Che Sara, Sara "

the pool was over. You may guess whether she knew a card
more that she played. When she had finished the Duke told
her he would wait on her the next morning to make the demand
in form. . . . The Duke asked no questions about fortune, but
has since slipped a bit of paper into Lady Elizabeth's hand,
telling her he hoped his son would live, but if he did not
there was something for her; it was a jointure of three thou-
sand a year, and six hundred pounds pin-money. She has
behaved in the prettiest manner in the world, and would not
appear at a vast assembly at Northumberland House on Tues-
day, nor at a great Hay-making at Mrs. Pitt's on Wednesday.
Yesterday they all went to Woburn, and to-morrow the cere-
mony is to be performed."

The wedding took place on the 9th June, and the honeymoon
was spent at Oakley, near Bedford, from whence Lord Tavistock
wrote the next day to his father as follows : —

" Oak LEV, Sunday, loth June.

"My dearest Father, — This line is only to tell you that
we got here very safe and in very good time last night. I dare
not say how happy I am. I beg you would make my best
respects to Lady Albemarle, and assure her her daughter is
perfectly well. Ever yours, my best of fathers, F. T."

Eighteen days later Lord Tavistock writes from Woburn
to a great friend the following letter : —

" In any other situation than my present one, I should have
reproached myself with a neglect of friendship in not having
wrote to you sooner, but that I am now in is so new a one —
has so many interesting concerns that a single life has not, that
I really can think of nothing else ; besides my present happiness
may perhaps be but a dream, and if it is no better, I should be
sorry to lose a single moment of it. I shall never find time to
write you word of all the details of my courtship, my wedding,

"Che Sara, Sara"

and my present way of life. More I must reserve till we meet.
Let it suffice that I have every reason in the world to be
satisfied with my wife— her sense, her virtue, her love, and her
attention to everything that can give me pleasure, demand all my
affection and my gratitude. I feel for her an attachment equally
bmding with the most violent love— tho' it wants its enchanting
fire and delirium. I allow I have a tenderness for her of which
I did not think my heart was capable; but which was very

diff'erent to what I felt for Lady •

" You talk in your letter of wishing to see my menage
before Parliament meets ... We shall be here or at Blenheim
till Bedford races, which begin August 6th, and after that time
shall stay in this country till after Christmas. About September
I believe I shall inhabit my house, and consequently shall like
much better to see you there. Indeed, I am so well satisfied
with the country, and so is my wife too, that I think 1 shall not
see much of London this year . . . Adieu, my dearest R
guess how much I dislike writing, since it is disagreeable to me
to make any longer this letter which is to the man to whom I
can most freely speak of all I think and do. Ever yours,

"F. T."
^ " My present happiness may perhaps be but a dream." Alas !
this was a prophetic surmise which the decrees of fate had
settled should be fulfilled.

In less than three years the happiness of this young couple
was brought to a tragic end by the unexpected death of Lord
Tavistock. When out hunting he had a fall, and his horse
kicked him, fracturing his skull. This terrible news came to
the Duke and Duchess of Bedford whilst they were at the
Opera. Lady Tavistock and the Duchess of Marlborough being
with them, and both ladies being in delicate health, the Duke
and Duchess, fearing for them a sudden shock, concealed the
news, and actually sat through the remainder of the opera hiding

"Che Sara, Sara"

their ghastly secret. The suppressed agony of the father had a
curious effect upon him : his head the day after broke out in
boils, which probably, it was said, saved his life. Lord Tavistock
was twice trepanned, but died on the 22nd March 1767.
Horace Walpole writes : " No man was ever more regretted ;
the honesty, generosity, humility and moderation of his
character endeared him to all the world. The desolation of
his family is extreme." Besides being high-minded and right-
principled. Lord Tavistock was very accomplished and in every
way a young man of great promise.

Lady Tavistock, who loved him passionately, never recovered
from the shock, though she lingered for many months. Four
months after her husband's death she gave birth to a posthu-
mous son, who was given the name of William. After this
event was over there was a consultation of the three physicians,
Ward, Damian, and Ford, and they recommended her being
taken to Lisbon, more with an idea of affording her some relief
through change of scene and a warm climate than with the
hope of any real cure, her mental anguish being terrible to
witness. A touching story was told by one of the doctors.
During a visit to her, he wished to feel her pulse in both
wrists, and finding a reluctance to open one of her hands, he
used a gentle violence, and saw that she had concealed in it
a miniature of her husband. "Ah, Madam," he said, "all our
prescriptions must be useless, while you so fatally cherish the
sorrow that destroys you." " I have kept this," she replied,
" either in my bosom or my hand, ever since my dear lord's
death, and thus I must indeed continue to retain it, until I
drop off after him into the welcome grave."

Lady Tavistock was accompanied to Portugal by her
brother, Admiral Keppel, and by her sister, Lady Caroline

SIK JOSHUA KEYNOLDS, ptllX.

Francis Russell, 5th Dukk of Bedford; Lord John Rlsskll (akthkwahds

6th Duke of Bedford) : Lord William Russell, and Miss Hknkiktta \'i:k\on

(afterwards Countess of Warwick).

(From a Mezzotint at SwallowfielJ, by Y. Green, 1778)

*' Che Sara, Sara "

Adair, with her husband, but neither change of scene nor
climate produced any good effect upon this broken heart,
and she died at Lisbon on the 9th of November of the same
year (1768) aged twenty-eight.

The tragedies of these two deaths did not complete the
chain of disasters that befel this ill-fated family.

One of Sir Joshua's well-known allegorical pictures — and a
very poor one — is composed of four figures, three of whom —
youths in armour — were the sons of the aforesaid unfortunate
Lord and Lady Tavistock.^ The eldest youth, who is supposed
to be St. George attacking the Dragon, in the foreground of
the picture, was Francis, Lord Tavistock, who succeeded his
grandfather as fifth Duke of Bedford in 1771- He seemed
to have everything that this world could give, position, great
talents, and immense wealth to enable him to utilise it for the
good of his country, which he showed every desire to do,
and a lovely bride, Lady Georgiana Gordon, daughter of the
Duke of Gordon, to whom he was shortly to be united, when
suddenly this promising life was brought to an early close, like
his father before him, as the result of an untoward accident.
He injured himself playing at racquets, and died in a few days,
after suffering intense agony, borne with the greatest fortitude
and thinking only of others to the last. Seldom has any one
been more lamented by the public, as well as by his friends
and relations. Charles James Fox, his cousin, made an eloquent
and touching eulogium on him in the House of Commons,
seconded by Sheridan. He was succeeded by his second brother.
Lord John, who became sixth Duke of Bedford, and married,
as his second wife, his late brother's fiancee. Lady Georgiana

1 The fourth figure was their cousin, Miss Henrietta Vernon, who married the
Earl of Warwick.

"Che Sara, Sara"

Gordon. He had a prosperous life and left innumerable
descendants; Lord John Russell, K.C., the Prime Minister, was
one of his sons,^ and the late Duchess of Abercorn one of his
daughters. His youngest son. General Lord Alexander Russell,
a man of charming personality, died only quite lately.

The culminating tragedy of this family fell upon the third
and youngest of the brothers. In the picture Lord William
is represented crouching in the background, supposed to be
terror-stricken at sight of the Dragon which his brother is
attacking with his spear ; but there is no look of horror in his
face, and one story is, that when Sir Joshua told him to look
more frightened, he laughingly said he could not manage to
do so at such a ridiculous creature !

Sixty-three years later he must have had the expression on
his face that Sir Joshua had desired to depict, when as an old
man of seventy-three years of age he saw the midnight
assassin's cruel knife descending over his defenceless head.

In May 1840, Lord William Russell, then a slight, frail
man, very deaf, lived alone ; his wife, Lady Charlotte Villiers,
daughter of the Earl of Jersey, had been dead thirty-three years,
and his two daughters were married, one to her cousin. Lord
Wriothesley Russell, and the other to the Hon. Grey Bennet,
son of Lord Tankerville ; but he had a son, Mr. William Russell,
a barrister, who always lived in London, and either he or his
wife, who had been one of the beautiful Miss Campbells of
Islay, and was a great favourite of Lord William, visited the
old gentleman every day without fail.

Lord William occupied No. 13 Norfolk Street, Park Lane,

^ Lord John Russell, K.C, created Earl Russell, was third son of the sixth Duke
of Bedford, by his first wife, the Hon. Gcorgiana Byng, daughter of the fourth
Viscount Torrington.

^J:

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Georgixa, Dlchhss 01- Bi;i)i-()Ku, DAucwiTiiiR OF Ai.i:xAM)i:u, 1-\)L'KTH Dlkh of Gokuon.

J'roin a Miniature bv K. Coswav, A'../.

" Che Sara, Sara "

a fourteen-roomed house, keeping a very small establishment —
namely, a cook and a housemaid and valet indoors, and a coach-
man and groom, who both lived over the stables close by. On
Tuesday morning, May 5th, Mrs. William Russell, after her
husband had left for Lincoln's Inn, started off as usual
from her house in Chesham Place to visit her father-in-law,
going across the Park on foot. Before she reached Norfolk
■ Street she got into an immense crowd, and as she was trying
to make her way through she was stopped by a cordon of
police, who told her she could not pass. On asking why,
she was horror-stricken at the answer she received, namely,
that Lord William Russell had been found murdered in his
bed. Greatly overcome, Mrs. Russell resolved, however, to go
on to the house, and the police, hearing who she was, conducted
her there. She at once interviewed Sarah Mancer the house-
maid, Mary Hennell the cook, and Francois the valet. She
ascertained that Lord William had spent the previous afternoon
and evening much as usual. In the morning he had been
to see Lord Albemarle at the Stud-House, and early in the
afternoon he walked to Brookes's Club in St. James's Street.
Before going there he gave his valet several messages to deliver,
one being to the coachman who was to bring his phaeton
for him to the club at four o'clock. Francois made a mistake
in the hour, and Lord William had to take a cab to bring
him home, for which he reprimanded his servant on his return.
Lord William, who was very methodical, always returned at
the same hour in order to take out his large Swedish sheep-
dog, of whom he was extremely fond. Lord William dined
alone at seven o'clock, and afterwards went up into the back
drawing-room to write. At nine o'clock the coachman came
as was his wont to take the dog to the stables for the night.

'^ Che Sara, Sara "

Lord William retired to his bedroom about half-past ten, at

which time the maids went to bed. The valet said he had

sat up till nearly twelve when Lord William's bell rang and

he then went up to assist him to undress, saw him get into

bed, and by his lordship's desire lighted a candle and gave

him a book. Then he said he went to bed himself. The

housemaid told Mrs. Russell that she had not heard any

noise in the night, although her room was immediately over

Lord Williams', but that on going downstairs before seven

that morning she found all the papers in her master's room

scattered about, his gold opera-glass, his cloak and other articles

done up in a bundle and placed in the hall, and the plate

all lying around. She thought it was a case of burglars, and

rushed upstairs to tell her fellow-servants. The valet then

followed her down, and they both went into Lord William's

room. Francois proceeded to open the shutters, and Sarah

Mancer, on approaching the bedside, saw that Lord William

was dead, with his face covered with a towel and the pillow

saturated with blood. The horrified woman rushed screaming

into the street to give the alarm, ringing the door bells of

the two adjoining houses. Her cries soon brought to the

spot Lord William's coachman, who fetched a surgeon. He

at once went to the bedroom and found that Lord William's

throat had been cut from ear to ear, so that the head was

nearly severed from the body. Several of the neighbouring

servants now came in, including the butler from Mr. Jones

Lloyd's, who lived at 22, and did all they could to help

the affrighted maids ; but the valet did nothing, and the

housemaid found him writing in the dining-room. On her

asking him indignantly why he had not gone for the police,

he said he must write to Mr. Russell, and his only remark

" Che Sara, Sara "

was, *' It was here they entered," pointing to some marks
of violence on the pantry door. The police, however, who
had been summoned by the neighbours, were soon upon the
scene, and took possession of the house, detaining all the three
servants. The coroner's inquest took place in the house the same
day, and corroborated all the housemaid had said. Mr. Com-
missioner Mayne, who arrived very soon at the house, stated
that he had had a conversation with the man-servant, who was
very much agitated, and said, " This is a shocking job, I shall
lose my place and lose my character." The back door near
the pantry, which had been locked the night before, was a
good deal bruised, but the police said that it had been opened
from the inside, and the general opinion was that some one
had entered the house early in the evening when the man-
servant was out and had remained secreted till midnight.
This idea created quite a panic in the neighbourhood. Some
suspicion, however, was attached to the valet, who had only
lived with Lord William for five weeks. He was a young
Swiss, Fran9ois Benjamin Courvoisier by name, aged twenty-
three ; but Mr. Fector, M.P., who was one of the first persons
who called at the house, with whom Courvoisier had lived
for two years previous to entering Lord William's service,
gave him a very high character. The jury came to a verdict
of " Wilful murder against some person or persons unknown,"
but the police remained in the house, and none of the servants
were allowed to leave it. It was found that some silver forks
and spoons as well as Lord William's watch, rings, and other
articles were missing : £^o was offered for their recovery,
and ^^400 for the conviction of the murderer. The excite-
ment in London was unprecedented, and increased rather than
diminished each day. The street was always blocked, not

^' Che Sara, Sara "

only with relatives and friends of the murdered man going
to inquire for news and leaving messages of sympathy, but
with the public, who congregated as near as they could get
from early morning till late at night. The house was besieged
by messengers from the Royal Family and Cabinet Ministers.
Prince Albert was deeply interested and sent several times ;
and amongst those who called personally were the Duke of
Wellington, Lords Salisbury, Hawarden, Cowley, Ailesbury,
Jersey, Elphinstone, Ashburnham, and Normanby. The latter
had several conferences with Mayne, the head of the police.

Three days after the murder a discovery was made of a most
important nature — namely, on removing the skirting-board
adjoining the sink in the butler's pantry the police found many
of the missing articles, including a ten-pound note, a gold watch,
some rings, gold coins, and Lord William's Waterloo medal.
In consequence of this Courvoisier was committed for trial, but
odd as it seems now, it was thought at the time that he might
escape conviction, and so strong a feeling was excited on his
behalf that a considerable subscription was raised among the
foreign servants in London to defray the expenses of counsel.
He was tried by Lord Chief Justice Tindal, who had Baron
Parke with him. The prisoner had for counsel Phillips, a very
gifted Irishman, the prosecution being in the hands of Adolphus,^
an advocate of great ability. Each day the court was thronged,
the application for seats being far greater than the accommoda-
tion. Preference was given to relatives ; amongst these on the
first day were Lord and Lady Arthur Lennox and the Coun-
tess of Charleville, these ladies being sisters of Mrs. William
Russell. Amongst others present were Lady Burghersh, Lady

' John Adolphus was a friend of Thackeray, and is alluded to in " Pendennis "
as " Gustavus" — "Gustavus still toils with Solomon to aid him."

" Che Sara, Sara "

Sondes, Lady Granville-Somerset, Lady Julia Lockwood, Lady
Bentinck, the Earls of Sheffield, Mansfield, Cavan, Clarendon,
Lucan, and South, Lord Rivers, Lord Gardner, Sir Gilbert
Heathcote, Sir Stratford Canning, Lord Frederick Gordon,
Hon. Mr. Villiers, &c.

On the second day a new witness appeared, the mistress of
a French hotel in Leicester Square. She said that, four years
ago, Courvoisier was her servant for about a month, but then,
through the instrumentality of his uncle, a most respectable man,
who was butler to Sir George Beaumont, he had obtained several
very good situations, and she had lost sight of him until a short
time ago, when he suddenly called to see her, and on leaving
wished her to take care of a parcel for him ; which she had done,
but that, reading the advertisement for Lord William's missing
plate, she had opened it, and finding the contents consisted of
silver forks and spoons, now produced it. They proved to be
the property of Lord William, and had on them the Bedford
crest. On the third and last day of the trial, Mr. Phillips
addressed the court and jury for the prisoner in a most eloquent
manner, and brought forward every possible argument in his
favour. His speech was made under circumstances of excep-
tional difficulty, as on the second day Courvoisier had sent for
his counsel in court and whispered to them, " I have sent for
you, gentlemen, to tell you I committed the murder." Phillips
was staggered, and said, " I presume then you are going to
plead guilty.^" "No, Sir," was the reply, "I expect you to
defend me to the uttermost." Phillips' first inclination was
to throw up the case, but he consulted Baron Parke, who said
he was bound to go on, and to use all fair evidence. Whether
Phillips did so confine himself has been considered a moot point,
and given rise to much discussion. The IVestminster Review

" Che Sara, Sara "

had some severe censures on him, especially with regard to
his (reported) solemn protest that the omniscient God alone
knew who committed this crime ; but Mr. Fortescue, a barrister
in court, stated that this was inaccurately reported. What
Phillips did say was the following : " But you will say to
me, if the prisoner did it not, who did it ? I answer, ask the
omniscient Being above us who did it ; ask not me, a poor
finite creature like yourselves. Ask the prosecutor who did
it ; it is for him to tell you who did it, it is not for me to
tell you ; and until he shall have proved by the clearest evi-
dence that it was the prisoner at the bar, beware how you
embrue your hands in the blood of that young man," &c.

Lady Arthur Lennox heard at the time that Courvoisier had
a tendresse for the housemaid, and he feared suspicion might
attach itself to her, and therefore made his confession.

After an absence of an hour and twenty-five minutes the
jury found Courvoisier guilty, and Chief Justice Tindal imme-
diately passed sentence of death. Extraordinary to say, a
petition was sent to the Home Office to spare the murderer's
life, but on the 6th July 1846 he was hung outside Newgate.
On the Sunday before the avenues to the prison chapel were
blocked up before nine by those who had obtained admission
to hear the condemned sermon and see the criminal. On
the day of the execution many persons of distinction were
admitted to the prison before seven o'clock, including the
actor Edmund Kean, "for the advantage of his professional
studies." Amidst this throng Courvoisier received the Holy
Sacrament, and afterwards, as he was going to be pinioned,
Mr. Sheriff Evans drew a letter from his pocket and asked
for his autograph ! Nearly fifty thousand persons were spec-
tators of his execution, amongst them being Lords Powers-

"Che Sara, Sara"

court, Glentworth, Lovat, Fitz-Harris, and Arthur Paget, and
the Marquis Saldanha, the Portuguese Ambassador. Lord
Orford with others hired a window to see it. They had to
go very early and all fell asleep, not awakening till some
time after the execution had taken place. This is said to
have been the origin of " Lord Tom Noddy " in the " Ingoldsby
Legends." Thackeray was present at the scene, and afterwards
wrote his plea for the abolition of public executions, under
the heading of " Reflections on Going to See a Man Hanged."
This, however, did not take effect for twenty-seven years,
notwithstanding Mr. Rich's Bill which he brought before
Parliament for the better ordering of the execution of criminals,
instancing the closing scenes of Courvoisier's life as " an affront
to a Christian and civilised community." Courvoisier whilst
in prison made two attempts at committing suicide, but both
were frustrated by the warders. Courvoisier received the
ministrations of the chaplain of the gaol and of a minister
of the French church, and joined in their prayers with fervour.
He was visited by his uncle and wrote letters to his relatives ;
and two days before his execution he himself wrote a full
confession, especially mentioning that the housemaid knew
nothing about the murder. He said he was in the dining-
room abstracting some more plate, having previously taken
forks and spoons, when suddenly he was startled by seeing
the figure of Lord William in his dressing-gown watching
him at the door. Lord William said to him, "You will
quit my service to-morrow and I shall acquaint your friends
as to what you have done," and then his lordship went back
to bed. Courvoisier now knew that all would be found out,
and after thinking over what he should do for more than an
hour, determined to kill his master. Accordingly he went

"Che Sara, Sara"

upstairs with a carving-knife, and finding Lord William fast
asleep, cut his throat. Lord William put up his arm to shield
himself from the blow, and in doing so his thumb was partially
cut off. Had the dog slept near his master the crime would
probably never have been perpetrated, as he was devoted to Lord
William ; and when the faithful animal was taken back to the
house after the tragedy it showed the greatest uneasiness, and
rushed about whining from room to room and looking up
imploringly in the faces of those around him.

An article appeared shortly after in the Examiner stating
that it was reading Harrison Ainsworth's "Jack Sheppard " that
gave Courvoisier the idea of murder, and this was made the
groundwork of a most acrimonious attack on the able writer's
romance. Harrison Ainsworth wrote a contradiction, in which
he said that the prisoner himself denied the statement.

Lord William Russell was buried at Chenies amongst his
ancestors ; to the last the interest and excitement continued, and
by six o'clock on the morning of the day fixed for the funeral
there were more than two hundred persons assembled in Norfolk
Street. Those were the days of the dreadful paraphernalia at
funerals ; and on this occasion we read of " mutes," " scarves,"
and " a fid of feathers."

Amongst the chief mourners was Lord William's nephew.
Lord John Russell, the Prime Minister, who was so deeply
affected that he could not go to the grave side, but remained in
the church.

Who would have thought, when that bright and lovely girl

acted as bridesmaid to Queen Charlotte, that she and her future

husband and her eldest son should all be carried off in their

prime, and that her youngest son should meet with such a

terrible death. " Che sara, sara."

Hon. Richard Hdgcump.h, Lok-o William 1x\ssi:ll, Lady Carolina Spencer.

From an Engraving aflcr a Pahitiug by J. Roberts, 1778

ROBIN ADAIR, OR THE FORTUNATE

IRISHMAN

Most persons know, or at all events have heard of, the once
popular song " Robin Adair," but few perhaps are aware of its
romantic origin.

Rather more than a hundred and fifty years ago there was
a good-looking and clever young medical student of that
name studying in Dublin. As was not an unfrequent occur-
rence there in those days he got implicated in some row in
that city which necessitated his leaving it, and he determined
to try his fortunes in London. Accordingly he managed to
cross the sea, but found that he had not sufficient money to
pay for any conveyance that would carry him on to the end
of his journey. He therefore started off on foot, intending
to walk until he could meet with some Good Samaritan who
would help him on his way. But fate, and in his case a
very kind one, soon overtook him, for he had not gone many
leagues before he came upon the scene of a recent accident,
and he was just in time to help a fair lady out of her coach
which had been overturned in a ditch. Fortunately for him,
her ladyship — for she was a well-known personage of the
Upper Ten — had incurred a slight injury necessitating surgical
aid, which he was able to give her, and furthermore her nerves
were so shaken, that she entreated the young surgeon to ac-
company her to the metropolis. This one can imagine he
was nothing loath to do, and at the end of the journey he

Robin Adair, or the Fortunate Irishman

found himself with a cheque for £ioo in his pocket and a
standing invitation to one of the best houses in London.

This unexpected piece of good fortune was the commence-
ment of a most successful career. Robert Adair soon gained a
large practice in London and made many friends. But the
climax of his good fortune came when he won the heart and
ultimately the hand of a charming young lady of high position.

The young surgeon met Lady Caroline Keppel at a ball
given by his patroness, and it was a case of love at first sight
on both sides ; but the course of true love ran anything
but smooth.

Lady Caroline, who was born in 1737, was the daughter of
William Anne Keppel, second Earl of Albemarle, K.G., who
commanded the left wing at CuUoden, and who ended his life
as Ambassador at the court of Versailles, where he lived in such
splendour that Horace Walpole called him " the most magnifi-
cent spendthrift of his time." He was greatly liked in Paris.
Marmontel, in his Memoirs, says, in talking of his death : " Lord
d'Albemarle mourut a Paris aussi regrette parmi nous que dans
sa patrie. C'etait, par excellence, ce qu'on appelle un galant
homme, noble, sensible, genereux, plein de loyaute, de franchise,
de politesse et de bonte, et il reunissait ce que les deux
caracteres de I'Anglais et du Fran9ais ^ ont de meilleure et de
plus estimable." Directly after giving him this excellent char-
acter Marmontel goes on to say : " II avait pour maitresse une
fille accomplie, et a qui I'envie elle-m6me n'a jamais reproch6
que de s'etre donnee a lui. Je m'en fis une amie ; '' c'etait un
moyen silr de me faire un ami de my lord d'Albemarle.

^ Lord Albemarle was of Dutch extraction, and was educated in Holland, and
only came to England when he was fifteen years of age.

- She was the "Adelaide" in Marmontcl's La Bcrgcrc des Alpcs.

Robin Adair, or the Fortunate Irishman

Le nom de cette aimable personne etait Gaucher ; son nom
d'enfance et de caresse etait Lolotte. C'etait a elle que son
amant disait, un soir qu'elle regardait fixement une etoile, ' Ne
la regardez pas tant, ma chere ; je ne puis pas vous la donner ! ' "

Mademoiselle Gaucher must have been as accomplished as
she was charming, for Marmontel also tells us that, " apres la
conversation de Voltaire la plus ravissante pour moi etait la
sienne." After Lord Albemarle's death. Mademoiselle Gaucher
married the Comte d'Herouville. By this means the fair
Lolotte hoped to make herself a position in French society, but
she met with so many humiliations that it was said her social
ostracism caused her death. Lord Albemarle had inherited
the estates of Elveden Hall, Suffolk, and Quidenham in
Norfolk, and ^^90,000 in the Funds ; and with his wife. Lady
Anne Lennox, daughter of the first Duke of Richmond, he got
;^2 5,000. Added to this he had the lucrative sinecure of the
Governorship of Virginia, and his public employments brought
him in ;^i 5,000 a year; yet such was his extravagance that at
his death in 1754 he left vast debts and deeply mortgaged
estates.

Lady Albemarle had fifteen children, of whom seven only
survived their infancy. One of them was the celebrated
Admiral Keppel, created Viscount Keppel of Elveden. He
and two of his brothers greatly distinguished themselves at
the taking of Havana, and when Lady Albemarle, who got
the name of the Mother of the Gracchi, first appeared at the
Drawing-Room after the news had arrived, she received a
sort of ovation from the royalties, and the Duke of Cumber-
land said to her, " By Gad, my Lady, if it wasn't in the
Presence-Chamber I should kiss you ! "

Lady Albemarle's brother, the second Duke of Richmond,

Robin Adair, or the Fortunate Irishman

with his wife, who was Lady Sarah Cadogan, were said to be
the proudest and the most exclusive couple in England. Thus
it is not to be wondered at that Lady Caroline Keppel met
with determined opposition when she announced that she wished
to marry the young Irish surgeon. Her only sister had lately
become the wife of Lord Tavistock, the Duke of Bedford's
eldest son, and as Lady Caroline was very pretty there seemed
no reason why she too should not make an advantageous match.
But she would not hear of giving up her " Robin." She was
taken abroad in the hopes that absence would make her forget
him, but in this case it verified the proverb and made the heart
grow dearer, and nature came to her rescue ; she fell ill and
had to be brought home. Then Bath was tried with no good
result, and it was whilst she was there that it is said she
composed the well-known song, " Robin Adair " —

" What's this dull town to me ?
Robin's not near ;
He whom I wish to see,
Wish for to hear !

Where"'s all the joy and mirth,
Made life a heaven on earth ?
Oh ! they're all fled with thee,
Robin Adair."

Ultimately, seeing no hope of obtaining the consent of her
relations, Lady Caroline took the law into her own hands ;
and as soon as she was of age, on the 22nd February 1758,
she eloped with Robert Adair and was privately married to him.

Shortly afterwards he was appointed Inspector-General of

Military Hospitals, and furthermore George III., who took a

fancy to him, gave him the post of Royal Sergeant-Surgeon as

well as that of surgeon to Chelsea Hospital. But still Lady

^IR josiir.v ui;vNOl.ns, /"ini.

Lady Cakolink Adair.

Robin Adair, or the Fortunate Irishman

Caroline was not forgiven by her relations, who held out for nine
years. Then Lady Caroline's sister, the charming and amiable
Lady Tavistock, who was fast sinking into her grave, never
havitig rallied from the shock of her husband's untimely death,
and who was about to leave England on what proved to be
her last journey, effected a reconciliation. Lady Caroline and
Mr. Adair and her brother, Admiral Keppel, accompanied Lady
Tavistock to Portugal ; but the change of scene and climate
was unavailing, and she died in that country. Lady Caroline
herself only outlived her sister for one year, dying at the
birth of her third child, after ten years of happy married life.
Her husband survived her for twenty-one years. They had
three children. The son, v/ho became the Right Hon. Sir
Robert Adair, Vv'as the well-known diplomatist. It was of him
that the following story was told. When he was sent to St.
Petersburg the Empress Catherine asked Mr. Whitworth,
afterwards Lord Whitworth :

" Est-ce un homme tres considerable ce Monsieur d'Adda ? "
" Pas trop, Madame," answered Mr. Whitworth, " quoique
son pere etait grand saigneur ! " alluding to the fact that
Adair's father was a surgeon.

Their second daughter, Elizabeth Adair, married the Rev.
George Barrington, who became fifth Viscount Barrington ;
and through her there are innumerable descendants of "The
Fortunate Irishman."

THE STRANGE DISAPPEARANCE OF A
DIPLOMAT: AN UNSOLVED MYSTERY

In November 1 809 a great sensation was caused in diplomatic
circles, as well as in London society, by the most mysterious
disappearance of a very well-known young Englishman.

Benjamin Bathurst was the third son of Henry Bathurst,
Bishop of Norwich (nephew of Allen, first Lord Bathurst), his
mother being Grace Coote, sister of Lord Castle Coote of
Lepperstown, near Dublin. He was given the family name
of Benjamin after his grandfather, Benjamin Bathurst of
Battesden, of whom it is worth noting that he had no fewer
than thirty-six children, namely, twenty-two by his first wife,
Miss Finetta Poole, an heiress, and fourteen by his second
spouse, Miss Catherine Broderick, a niece of Lord Middleton.

The Bishop of Norwich was the second son of the latter
lady, and besides being a very able man, was celebrated for
his many virtues and unswerving integrity. It was to him
that Bulwer Lytton alludes in "The Pilgrims of the Rhine,"
as the prelate with whom the virtues lived so long that,
wearying at last of the society of a man who had not one
redeeming vice, the most volatile of them set out on the
famous expedition.

The son was worthy of the sire. Born in 1784, young

Benjamin Bathurst was educated at Winchester. When there

his father talks of him as "an uncommonly fine boy, with

a fair share of industry, considerable attainments for his age

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

(fourteen), and full of affection," He went to Oxford as
Fellow of New College when he was only fifteen, and entered
the Diplomatic Service at a very early age, being described
at that time as " a singularly gifted youth,"

In January 1 804, when he was barely twenty, he held
some post at Vienna under Sir Arthur Paget, the English
ambassador. He remained there till March 1805, when he
made a tour in Italy and Greece to re-establish his health,
which he said had been " somewhat injured by a residence
of fifteen months in the most unwholesome capital of Europe."
On his return to England, when he was still only twenty-one
years of age, he was appointed Secretary of Legation at the
Court of Stockholm ; and it was then that Mr. Bathurst took
unto himself a wife, his bride being Phillida, daughter of
Sir John Call, Bart., of Whiteford, Cornwall.^ She was a
charming girl, some years older than himself, and he had
been engaged to her for two years. Her uncommon name
was said to be a diminutive of her mother's, which was Phila-
delphia ; but " Phillida " was the name of the heroine in one
of CoUey Cibber's plays, a favourite part of Kitty Clive.

In writing to announce his engagement to his brother
James (afterwards Sir James Bathurst and A.D,C. to Lord
Wellington in the Peninsula), Benjamin Bathurst says : " I
am sure you will admire her candour, simplicity of manners,
and cultivated mind which gain every heart wherever she
is known. No person was ever more beloved by her intimate
relations or esteemed more by the generality of the world ;
indeed I consider myself most fortunate in this lot, whatever

' Sir John Call was the eldest of four brothers who went to India about the
middle of the eighteenth century, sons of John Call, Esq., of Launcells, co.
Cornwall ; he served in India as military engineer with considerable reputa-
tion, and was created a Baronet in 1791.

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

success may attend me in my progress through life in other
respects."

Mr. Bathurst was about this time Secretary of Legation
at Leghorn, and in 1807 was sent a second time to Stockholm
on a special mission, and on both of these occasions he was
accompanied by his wife. In the spring of 1809 he was
appointed Envoy Extraordinary on an important secret mission
to the Court of Vienna, his orders being to assure the Cabinet
there of the intention of England to send a powerful contingent
into Spain, and to use his best endeavours to induce Austria
to declare war. From Pesth he wrote in the middle of June :
"It would be endless to go over everything that has happened
to me since my being on this station, where I have hitherto
witnessed scarcely anything but distress and misfortune. I
got to Vienna the very day of the terrible accounts from
the Danube, and have seen little since to cheer the scene.
The desperate resolution of the Austrians keeps pace with
the military blunders they improve upon daily. No reverses
can correct, no experience instruct them ; a cause quite sacred,
pursued with a frantic zeal, an incomparable army and resources
without end, all yield to the ascendant of our abominable
opponent and his superior military skill. A miracle (or another
battle of Aspern, which was little less) may restore us, but
scarcely any other effort. I cannot say I am quite in Paradise,
though a very flattering situation, and an immediate actor in
events which inspire the deepest interest, atone a little for a sepa-
ration from Phillida, and a variety of other inconveniences."

On October 14, 1809, Mr. Bathurst wrote to his wife as
follows : —

" 1 am able to give you a few words of intelligence of me,
my dearest Phillida, by Heligoland, though hardly more from

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

the smallness of the packet I am obliged to observe in sending
through this channel. Things are in the most desperate con-
dition, and if Bonaparte can be removed from Vienna without
some very signal catastrophe to Austria, the utmost of our
hopes will be fulfilled. My fate will, of course, be decided
amongst the other articles of the Peace. If the intercourse
with England is put an end to, which is next to certain, I shall
endeavour to get home by Colberg and Sweden, rather than
the Mediterranean, of which I had so disagreeable a specimen
in the spring. This, as far as my foresight will carry me,
is likely to be the result, unless some interposition of Providence
happens, for I hardly think anything else however v/ill do.
I shall rejoice to return once more to you, and as the affairs
of the Continent are for the present so hopeless, I shall not
much regret abandoning them, Krause (the King's messenger)
came back from Hamburg yesterday, having sent on my
despatches and letters. I see by the newspapers he brings that
Lord Bathurst ^ is Premier. For myself I have now nothing
but Parliament to look to. I must succeed in placing myself
there somehow or another. My distress is very great owing
to having no intelligence from England. I have not received a
word from you since the letters you sent by Krause ; write to
Heligoland to Mr. Nicholas and he will forward your letters
to me ; but the advertisement comes, I am almost afraid, too
late. Adieu, my dearest ! yours ever most affectionately.

"B. B.
"I am quite recovered."

On October 15th, the day after the above letter was written,
in consequence of Napoleon's triumphs at Eckmuhl, Assern,
Elsling, and Wagram, the treaty of peace between France and
Austria was signed. Austria was compelled to prohibit all

^ Mr, Bathurst's cousin, Earl Bathurst, had married in 1789 Georgiana,
daughter of Lord George Lennox, and sister to the fourth Duke of Richmond,

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

intercourse with England, and the speedy return of Mr. Bathurst
was looked for by his family and by the Foreign Office. But
day after day passed and no further news was heard of or
from him. At first his relations and friends allowed themselves
to be buoyed up with the hope that he had been obliged to
take a circuitous route to avoid falling into the hands of the
French ; but as week after week elapsed and no tidings arrived,
their agonies of suspense became very great. " At length," writes
his sister Tryphena (afterwards Mrs. Thistlethwayte), " one
evening in December, my father received an express from Lord
Wellesley requesting his immediate attendance at Apsley House,
his lordship having something of importance to communicate.
On my father's return, we were all alarmed at his pale and
dejected aspect. He informed us that Government had re-
ceived intelligence of the sudden and mysterious disappearance
of my brother at Perleberg, a small town in Brandenbourg,
where he had stopped on the route from Vienna for rest and
refreshment."

It appears that when Mr. Bathurst was told he must no
longer consider himself accredited to Buda, where the Court then
resided, he left that place, but instead of going direct to England
proceeded at first to Berlin, where he was in communication with
Baron Wissenberg, the Austrian minister, who had married an
English lady, and with whom he was intimate. On his return
journey he stopped at the Post-House at Perleberg on Saturday
the 25th November at midday. Soon after he sat down to write
in a small room, and remained there some hours, afterwards
burning several of his papers. He then ordered fresh post-
horses to be ready by seven o'clock to go on to Lenzen, the next
station, and went to the " White Swan," an inn close by, and had

an early dinner ; after which he inquired who was in command

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

of the soldiers quartered in the town. He was told it was
Captain Klitzing, and he went to that officer's residence and
asked if he might be given a guard in the inn, as he feared
his life was in danger. He appeared agitated, in con-
sequence of something he had heard. Rightly or wrongly,
Mr. Bathurst, it was said, rather mistrusted Krause, concerning
whom he had received a warning ; and finding that Krause had
a bill for ;^500 upon him at Perleberg roused his suspicions.
In consequence of Mr, Bathurst's application, two soldiers were
appointed to guard the inn. At seven o'clock he dismissed
them, that being the time he had settled to start ; but at the
last moment he changed his mind and countermanded the post-
horses till nine o'clock. At that hour they were ready at the
door — the postilion was adjusting the harness and the hostler
holding a horn-lamp, as the oil lantern hung across the street
gave but a dim light, and the night was dark. Krause, who
though sometimes called King's messenger, is also called
"the secretary," was paying the account, the landlord standing
cap in hand preparing to wish his departing guest God-speed,
and, as the story goes, Mr. Bathurst's servant had actually
opened the door of the carriage for his master (who had been
standing near the horses' heads watching his portmanteaux being
placed on the top of the vehicle) to step in and take his
seat, when at that moment Mr. Bathurst, without any warning,
sound, or cry disappeared as suddenly as if the earth had opened
and swallowed him up. At first nothing was thought of the
delay ; but when nearly an hour had elapsed his companions
began to make inquiries for him in and out of the building.
All in vain; he was nowhere to be found, and every one about
the place denied having seen him. Mr. Bathurst's servant
then went to inform the governor. Captain Klitzing, of the

97 G

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

circumstance, and that official sent immediately to the local
authorities at Perleberg and charged them to make all possible
inquiries. The four magistrates of the town were roused
from their sleep to join in the investigations. At the same
time, Captain Klitzing sent Krause and Mr. Bathurst's valet
to the hotel of the " Golden Crown," and ordered a guard
of cuirassiers to keep watch over them there. On Sunday,
every search having been fruitless, this officer went to Berlin
to communicate with the authorities there. Time was lost by
this journey, and it was not till his return that a judicial in-
vestigation took place, when all the inhabitants of the Post-
House were closely examined. They consisted of the hostler
Schmidt, his wife, son, and daughter, and their servant,
Elizabeth Nagel Schmidt, who besides being the head of the
Post-House was also the letter-carrier of the place, and had
formerly been a non-commissioned officer. Considerable sus-
picion attached itself to the son, August Schmidt, as he was
known to be a vagabond and a gambler ; and moreover Mr.
Bathurst's valuable travelling coat of sable was found in his
possession. This, however, was explained (and apparently the
explanation satisfied the authorities) by the statement that it
had been left in the Post-House ; so that August and his
mother were only sentenced to eight weeks' imprisonment for
not having declared it, and even that short sentence was
reduced in consequence of a general amnesty.

On December loth Krause departed for Berlin, where he
went to the Head of the Police to urge further investigation,
and he also laid the matter before the English Ambassador.
Meanwhile the search at Perleberg was continued with renewed
vigour ; citizens, peasants, gamekeepers and huntsmen worked

assiduously in every direction, the latter using their dogs to

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

assist. All cellars, lofts, and every barn, ditch, and wood were

examined. The river Stepnitz was let off during two days by

the mill-master, and searched thoroughly, but all to no purpose.

The only trace of the missing man that came to light was a pair

of grey " pantaloons," or " overalls " (as they were variously

called), which an old woman brought to Krause and said she

had found in a copse three miles from the town. This only

added mystery to mystery. They certainly were the " overalls "

worn by Mr. Bathurst at the time of his disappearance, but they

had obviously been laid out in the copse in a position purposely

to catch the eye ; furthermore they had two bullet holes in

them, but there was no blood, and it was thought from this

that the shots had been fired into empty trousers.^ In one of

the pockets there was a half-written letter to his wife, scribbled

on a dirty scrap of paper in pencil, which had got soaked with

wet from the heavy rains. The letter contained a representation

of all the dangers to which he was exposed in consequence, as

he said, of his being surrounded by enemies, and expressed fears

that he should never reach England, and that his ruin would be

brought about by Comte d'Antraigues" and the Russians. It

also contained a request to Mrs. Bathurst not to marry again in

the event of his not returning.

The English Government offered _^iooo reward for authentic
news of Mr. Bathurst, his family another thousand ; ten thalers
were added to this by the local authorities at Perleberg, and
one hundred friedrichs d'or by Prince Frederick of Prussia
— but these large rewards produced no evidence. Nothing
authentic ever came to light, though many and various were

' It seems probable that they had been placed there after the search.
* Comte d'Antraigues, a political adventurer, who was in the pay of both
France and Russia. See Appendix.

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

the stones circulated, each new one contradicting the last.
Some palpably incorrect statements were printed at the time,
and these have since often reappeared in print. Thus one reads
in some that Mr. Bathurst was rash enough to be travelling
quite alone, whilst other accounts state that he foolishly
took all his suite with him. Neither of these statements are
correct: he had with him Krause (or Krouse), a King's messenger,
who appears to have acted as his secretary and courier on this
occasion, and his own Swiss body-servant, Nikolaus Hilbert,
in whom he had the greatest confidence, which apparently was
not misplaced. Mr. Bathurst and Krause travelled under
assumed names, the former as "Koch" and the latter as
"Fischer," and were described as merchants. At Berlin it was
given out that Mr. Bathurst had shown symptoms of insanity
and that he had destroyed himself; but this appears to have had
no foundation, and if it had been the case his body, sooner or
later, would have been found.

At the end of December the traveller Roentgen (or
Rontgen), a man well known in his time, who was a personal
friend of the Bathursts, volunteered to go to Perleberg to see
what he could discover. He went armed with money to
distribute amongst those who had exerted themselves for so
many weeks in the search, but he failed in getting any fresh
definite information. At Berlin he was joined by Mrs. Bathurst
herself. She had started for the Continent in the spring of
1810, accompanied by her brother, Mr. George Call, as well as by
a German interpreter and her own Swedish maid, and travelling
over Germany made the most exhaustive inquiries, having first
been solemnly assured by Napoleon that he was in complete
ignorance of her husband's fate. The following is the story of

Mrs. Bathurst's search told in her own words : " In the spring

100

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

of 1810 I wrote to Napoleon to ask for passports to seek for
my husband, and desired they might be sent to our Foreign
Office, then under the direction of Lord Bathurst ; but my
brother George advised me, as I was bent on going, not to wait
for passports from Paris (for if refused by the Emperor we
could not risk going), but to go with Swedish passports round
by the Baltic. This I consented to do, and Baron Rehausen
gave us passports to land at Gothenburg as Mr. and Mrs. Call,
and get into Prussia by Pomerania. On arriving after many
adventures at Berlin George advised me to send for the French
Minister, and, letting him into our secret, claim his protection,
as he was literally the king of the country. This I did, and Count
St. Priest came to see me. On discovering to him my name, he
said, ' Ma chere madame, j'ai des passeports pour vous depuis
hier signes par S. M. I'Empereur lui-meme.' I answered,
"J'ai demandee des passeports a S. M. I'Empereur, mais j'ai
aussi priee S. M. de me les envoyer a Londres a notre Bureau des
Affaires Etrangeres, et comme je suis partie sans que personne ne
le savait, pas meme Lord Bathurst, ni aucun membre de nos
families que ma mere et mon beau-frere, cela me parait assez
remarkable.' He replied, ' EfFectivement, madame, je ne
comprends rien, mais j'ai vos passeports directe par un courier
de Paris ' ; to which I answered, ' Oui, monsieur, cela prouve
que votre systeme d'espionage vaut mieux que le notre, car on
savait a Paris que j'etais partie avant qu'on le savait chez nous.'
" In my idea this formed a link in the d'Antraigues' afFair, he
being then supposed to be an English spy, but in reality wis a
French spy in London. With these passports we went all over
the Continent free of annoyance, and Rontgen, whom I had sent
on discoveries some months before, joined us at Berlin. He told
me a lady of Magdeburg had been heard to say that the English

lOI

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

Ambassador, whom everybody was looking for, was in Magdeburg
fortress. To that lady he, ROntgen, went ; she confirmed what
she had said, and added that the governor of Magdeburg had
told her so in these words : ' They are looking for the English
Ambassador, but I have him up there,' pointing to the fortress.
Of course I settled to go myself to the governor of Magdeburg,
though Rontgen had already seen him. He did not deny his
words, but said it was a mistake. I thought, however, that
governors do not make such mistakes, and decided on verifying
it myself.

" We set off, taking Perleberg by the way. There I saw the
woman who found the overalls; I went to the spot where she
found them ; I saw the room my husband inhabited ; the table
on which he slept some hours ; the river which was dragged for
his body ; and followed up every report, going round all the
Hanse towns in hopes of intelligence, and finally, on our way to
Paris, went to Magdeburg, where I had an interview of two
hours with the governor. I begged, I prayed on my knees, I
menaced God's wrath on his head if he deceived me : ' Yes,'
he said, ' I did say so to a lady at a ball, but it was a mistake
of mine ; the person in question was one Louis Fritz, a spy sent
out by Mr. Canning and taken up by the douaniers and brought
here.' ' Well, sir,' said I, ' let me see Louis Fritz.' He
replied, ' He is gone to Spain from Magdeburg.' We went to
Paris, where I got permission from the Emperor to advertise for
my husband in all the papers, even in the Moniteur.'^

In the autumn of i 810, Mrs. Bathurst and Mr. Call returned

to England ; but before they were allowed to leave France they

went through great difficulties. Finally they got away with

passports from the Due de Cadore, although the Due de Rovigo,

Minister of the Police, whom Mrs. Bathurst found " brutal and

102

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

overbearing," refused to countersign tliem. They went from

Morlaix in a trawler, which landed them at Saltash after having

journeyed 2054 miles by land and 700 by sea. Mrs. Bathurst

in her account goes on to say : " After embracing my angel

children and my dear mother at Bath, I took up my abode with

my brother in Bond Street, when in November, Rontgen, who

had been to the Foreign Office with a message to Mr. Canning,

asking him if he had ever sent out any one of the name of

Louis Fritz, that gentleman, after taking the trouble of looking

over all the passports of 1809, sent me word no such passport

had been granted and no such person sent by him ! While I

was considering this as a confirmation of my suspicion of the

Magdeburg story, Rontgen told me a gentleman called Comte

d'Antraigues wished to see me. The name, unknown to him,

but familiar to me from my husband's letter, made me start, and

I desired he would come to me as soon as possible. He came

the next day. He began by telling me that I might put on my

weeds, for that he could prove to a certainty the death of my

husband. He abused the Emperor and the French, but I was

on my guard on account of what my husband said. He told

me that had he known I was going to look for him, he would

have given me letters to Fouchet, who would have confirmed

what he said, and that what I heard about Magdeburg was true ;

and that my husband, on going away from Perleberg, had been

taken up by the douaniers-montes (a guard armed to the teeth),

and had been conducted to the fortress of Magdeburg, that

the governor had written to Paris to know what he should do

with him, and received for answer from Fouchet, the Minister

of Police, that the Emperor must not be troubled with all the

madmen England sent out, like Drake, Sir Sydney Smith,

Pichegru, and Rumbold, therefore, to put him out of the way ;

103

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

that the governor was alarmed then, having spoken of my
husband, and therefore made up the story he had told me,
but that my husband had perished there. I replied that it was
possible, but that I must have proof of his assertions. He
answered that he desired me to remain in town long enough
for him to write in cipher to Paris, and he would translate and
show me the answer he should get. I did so ; he wrote, as he
assured me, but about the time that the answer should arrive,
he and his wife were murdered by a foreign man-servant whom
they had lately hired. They were coming out of their house
at Twickenham, and the Countess had her foot on the step of
her chariot when the servant came behind her, and over her
shoulder plunged a dagger in her breast, killing her instantly.
The Count, who was following down the little garden, ran back
to his bedroom for pistols — the man after him ; two reports
were heard, and when the servants ran into the room, both
master and man were lying dead on the floor. Now you must
know that this d'Antraigues was a spy of the French and
Russian Governments, and was also being employed by our
Foreign Ofiice in the same capacity. The affair was hushed
up, and so ended that clue." ^

Mr. Bathurst's mother never gave up the idea and the hope
that her son existed to the last moment of her life, and friends
as well as relations continued for many years to prosecute
inquiries. One of the former, Mr. Richard Underwood,
writing in November 1816, says: "On my arrival on the
Continent I sought every one v/ho I thought could give any
information that would tend to elucidate this extraordinary

' The murder of Comte and Comtesse d'Antraigues was thought by many to
be poHtical, in order to get hold of some papers ; but it is more probable that the
servant Lorenzo, who was said to be rather mad, was exasperated by the Countess,
who was a virago, and had dismissed him the previous day.

104

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

and mysterious affair. I have been several times in company
with Dr. Armstrong, and the result of all the evidence he
collected at Perleberg is the conviction he feels that Mr.
Bathurst was robbed and murdered in that town, either by
August Schmidt or his friend Hacker, the brandy-distiller,
a notoriously bad character, who was said to have lived after-
wards in Altona as an opulent man."

In 1852 Mrs. Bathurst's sister Tryphena, then Mrs.
Thistlethwayte, visited Perleberg with her daughter and a
courier. Her object, she said, was to see the last spot in which
she had heard of her poor brother and the last persons with
whom he had conversed there. Accordingly she saw at least
five persons in the town who were living at the time of his
disappearance, two of whom had seen and remembered him
perfectly. Mrs. Kestern, the wife of the governor's doctor,
was at the date of Mr. Bathurst's visit to Perleberg a young
woman of about twenty, v;ho acted as housekeeper in the house
where the governor lived, and she recognised a miniature of
Mr. Bathurst which Mrs. Thistlethwayte showed her. She was
the person who had at the time given the following evidence :
namely, that at about five in the evening (the night of the
disappearance) Klitzing came to her and asked her to get some-
thing ready — he thought tea would be the best, as he had a
stranger in his room perished with the cold. She herself took
the tea into the room, and described the stranger as a par-
ticularly fine young man of distinguished manners, wearing a
handsome diamond brooch, light trousers, and a magnificent
fur coat. When the stranger left, to her astonishment he did
not cross the market-place to return to the Post-House from
whence he came, but turned round the corner and entered the

street leading to the shoe-market, where was situated the

105

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

suspicious house of Hacker, the brandy-distiller. At first she
thought to run after him and put him on his right way,
particularly as he appeared to be in such a great hurry ; but
then it occurred to her that perhaps he intended to go to the
German Coffee-house where a ball was being given that even-
ing to the provincial nobility. Shortly after this came August
Schmidt and inquired about the lord. She pointed out in what
direction Mr. Bathurst went, and August, she said, must have
been in time to lay hold of him, and upon the word "hold"
she put a particular stress. Soon there came the companion
(Krause) and the servant to ask for him, and the whole place
was in an uproar at the disappearance.

Mrs. Thistlethwayte whilst at Perleberg was shown the
skull and part of the under jaw of a skeleton that had been
found under the floor of a stable adjoining an old house that
was being pulled down, and which had at the time of the dis-
appearance been occupied by Mertens, a waiter at the " White
Sv/an " where Mr. Bathurst dined. The skull had apparently
been fractured by a blow from behind. The chief magistrate
told her that an investigation was at that very time taking
place by command of the Prussian Government, and that the
King of Prussia was extremely interested on the subject.
The moment, however, that Mrs. Thistlethwayte saw the
skull she felt convinced it was not her brother's, as the whole
contour was exactly opposite to the shape of his head, and
the chief magistrate, a medical man, also attested that the
jaw could not have belonged to the person whose portrait
Mrs. Thistlethwayte produced. At the same time it was
considered rather suspicious that Mertens the waiter should
have been able to portion his two daughters, one with >{!i20

and one with ;^ 150, This seems to have been the last inquiry

106

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

ever made, and the mystery of the disappearance remains
unsolved.

Captain Klitzing, the governor of Perleberg, believed that
Mr. Bathurst had been murdered for his money. He had
a good deal about him and had foolishly displayed it, and he
was also wearing a valuable diamond pin, besides the very rich
sable coat already alluded to. In England, Germany, and
Prussia the public opinion was that he had been killed by order
of Napoleon or his emissaries, and the Times in a leader on
January 23, 18 10, asserted this so strongly that the Moniteur
took up the controversy and indignantly denied it. In i 840 the
German writer, Varnhagen von Esse, resuscitated the episode,
still accusing the French ; and the Spectator did the same in
1862, suggesting that the crime was committed to get hold of
Mr. Bathurst's despatches and prevent verbal communication.
Furthermore it was known that Mr. Bathurst himself believed
that Napoleon bore him special enmity on account of his
exertions to incite the Austrian Ministry to a declaration of
war. But Mr. Call, his brother-in-law, was of quite a different
opinion, and wrote: "In justice to the Emperor Napoleon,
I must acquit him and his Government of any foul practice
towards Mr. Bathurst." His theory was that his brother-in-
law got alarmed at Perleberg, and thought it wise to escape
without saying anything to anybody. That he did this under
cover of the darkness, dropped his " overalls " in order to be in
better walking order, and finally made his way to Konigsberg.
Mr. Call's theory was in some way borne out by the fact that
evidence came out that shortly after his disappearance a stranger,
who refused to leave his name, had called at the house of the
British agent at Konigsberg, and not finding him at home
asked the servant to say that an T^nglishman requested to see

107

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

him next morning at the Post-House. The agent went there
the following day, and was told that a person had been there and
left. Two vessels foundered at sea going from Konigsberg
at this time, and Mr. Call's theory was that Mr. Bathurst had
taken ship in one of them for Stockholm (his former post) and
been lost at sea.

Mr. Bathurst's brother, Sir James Bathurst, also totally
disbelieved that Napoleon had anything to do with the dis-
appearance. Otherwise it was not likely that, on his return from
Egypt, he should have asked to be presented to the First
Consul.^

Mr. Bathurst v/as only twenty-six years of age at the
time of his disappearance, and was described as "handsome,
tall, and slender, fair complexion, with most beautiful hands
and teeth, a calm and thoughtful countenance, remarkably
large blue eyes which fixed the attention of those persons
he addressed, but a gentle kindness in his looks which would
dispel any timidity in a moment." He had brilliant talents,
and at the age of twentv-five had attained a prominent position
as a diplomatist, and a distinguished professional career would
probably have been his if he had been spared to his country
and his friends.

Mr. Bathurst left two infant daughters ; the second one
Emmeline, married in 1830 Edward, Viscount Stuart, who
succeeded his father as Earl of Castle Stewart, and secondly
at Rome in 1867 Signor Alessandro Pistocchi, and died in
1893, having added to her unfortunate mother's bitter sorrows.

The eldest daughter, Rose, or Rosa, Bathurst, who was born

^ It was on this occasion that Napoleon asked him if he had flirted much with
the pretty Egyptian girls. "Sire," replied Sir James, bowing respectfully, "we
had something else to do." "Ah I oui, jeune homme," said Napoleon, " vous
me faites souvenir des circonstances desagrcables — Bonjour."

108

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

at Stockholm, grew up to be both beautiful and charming,
as well as good and highly accomplished, and was said greatly
to resemble her father. When she was sixteen years of age
she went to spend the winter with her uncle and aunt, Lord
and Lady Aylmer, at Rome, where she was greatly admired
and much liked by all the society she adorned. On March
1 6, 1824, whilst riding on the banks of the Tiber with the
Aylmers, and accompanied by the French Ambassador, the Due
de Montmorency-Laval, and several other persons, a terrible
tragedy occurred, which is best described by giving the following
narrative, written shortly after by Lady Aylmer in the form
of a letter to an inquiring and sympathising friend :

My dear , — I think you wish for more details of

the melancholy event of our poor Rosa's fatal end, and as I
am the only one whose pen can give them, you shall have facts
and truth from me however painful, even at this distance of
time, the relation may be; on such a subject memory is too
tenacious and every particular of that awful day is deeply
imprinted on my mind. First, it has been a source of con-
solation to us that we did not decide on our choice of road,
or other arrangements, in that fatal ride. On the contrary,'
my poor child and I particularly wished to go some other,'
for the sake of some fine turf on which we wished to canter ;
but Lord Aylmer's horse having come to the door lame, the
amiable Due de Montmorenci made his groom dismount, and-
giving Lord Aylmer his horse, sent the groom back for another,
and he was ordered to meet us at the Ponte Molle ... the
Due proposed a path on the opposite side of the river, and
undertook to guide us to it. A gate through a vineyard,
usually open, on that day being shut, the Due continued in
a path by the river, turning short round by the path; each,
as we turned, disappeared from the sight of those who followed.

109

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

I had under my charge that day, at her mother's request, a
youno- lady, on whom, as being a timid rider, my attention
was more particularly directed, and as I was before her, im-
mediately on seeing the line of path, I called back to her
without turning my head to dismount before she came to
a narrower path which I had then reached, where to do so
would have been attended with difficulty. The young lady
had her groom following her and she accordingly jumped off,
and 1 then felt satisfied. Rosa was an excellent horsewoman,
was on her own English horse,^ and I had her before me ;
and as it was impossible without risk to attempt returning,
we had only to go forward and follow the Due and Lord
Aylmer, who were before us, and had ridden on to where
the road widened. Lord Aylmer returned to reassure us,
and to tell us that a few yards farther it was quite safe
and good. As he was approaching us the dear child's mare
seemed to descend into a little dip, or watercourse, before her,
and I called out, ' Do not let your horse turn.' My eyes
fixed on her movements. I jumped off my pony to approach
her, and at that moment the animal backed, and losing her
footing, the bank being rather precipitous, she slid down and
was in one instant plunged with her precious burden into the
dreadful Tiber, and as instantly carried by the impetus out
beyond the reach of any mortal near her, and into the current
of the swollen river. To rush down the steep bank and
plunge in was to Lord Aylmer the desperate act of the
moment. Hat, coat, and all his heavy clothes about him,
he struggled on ; a tolerable swimmer, he was more than
commonly impeded, for, owing to his state of health, he
was encumbered v/ith a good deal of flannel, and when he
found himself unable to contend with the sweeping force
of the swollen river, thick as it was on that day from the
snow and various matters brought to its rapid course from

' Given to her by Lord Algernon Percy, to whom it is said she was engaged.

I lO

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

the higher grounds, he made for the shore, and hurrying off
with some difficulty his coat and waistcoat, he again plunged
in to struggle a second time with death and the almost
despairing hope of reaching the angel girl who had, during
those agonising moments, divided my interest with him whom
I saw still rising and sinking before me ; and then I beheld
her turn as it were upon her saddle and fall from it into
the river. She never rose again — too certainly something in
the mysterious depths of that horrid Tiber had caught her
habit and dragged her off the horse, which till then she
had clung to, and as she was not unseated when the horse
slid backwards I had the most sanguine expectations it would
have brought her to land. But neither horse nor man could
struggle against such a stream when once in the middle
current of it. Till this moment, even in our agony, all
had been silent ; at first, indeed, I well remember the sound
of my own voice, screaming loudly to the Due to come and
help us, but he was out of sight, hid, I believe, by some
bushes. I called in vain . . . the only man with us was
the groom before mentioned ; on the instant I directed him
to a point of land where, probably, the horse would make
for, on the current driving her to the bank. ' Can you swim ? '
I called out. ' No,' was the answer. ' Then do not attempt
anything.' Thank God ! I had the courage to say this . . .
my wretched and exhausted husband reached the shore, and
then it was that I struggled with him in his distraction.
Then it was that I was mad enough to say, that if he again
attempted to do anything so rash, it should not be alone.
We were both on the very brink of the river, and having
made him comprehend that the body had entirely disappeared,
there was an awful ending to all. 1 had made the young
lady and her groom mount, and they rode home as quickly
as they could for assistance. We made our dispirited way
on foot to the Ponte Molle, where the first person I met

1 1 1

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

was Lady Coventry, whom I was too wild at that moment
to recognise. She rode back to Rome, sent us on her way
a sort of carnage, into which, without hat or coat, and dripping,
cold and exhausted, my poor Aylmer threw himself, 1 lay
upon him, that my long habit might keep the cold from
his body, and in this way we reached the town and our
apartments, where, after 1 had despatched two perfect strangers,
whom I met before entering the house, for Lord Howden
and Dr. Wilson — and to their credit both executed my com-
missions— I set about, with the help of the servants, cutting
off Lord Aylmer's clothes and getting him to bed, where
many hours passed before our efforts could restore warmth
or animation, and many months after some effects of this
wretched day's tragedy remained in his constitution. . . . We
had the comfort of Dr. Wilson's (himself a good swimmer)
testimony as to the utter impracticability of any man, how-
ever good a swimmer, saving that unfortunate victim. Had
he been there, he said, he should have made the attempt, yet
he thought, in the then state of the impetuous and sweeping
current, he should not have been able to beat the horse, whose
stronger efforts to reach the shore were not successful, not-
withstanding she had her head toward the shore when she
slipped in and naturally made immediate efforts to reach it.
During the following days the young Englishmen then at
Rome, most of whom were acquainted with our poor niece,
headed by the kind Duke of Devonshire, took every proper
measure to search for the body. Boats were out in every
direction, and £^o offered as a reward for the discovery, but
all to no effect. The whole society of Rome was absorbed
in the most intense grief at the Joss of one who, though so
young, was considered one of its most brilliant ornaments and
who was the charm of all her friends from her beauty and
cultivated mind. Lady Blessington, in her Diary, mentions
how she had seen her coming out of the Opera two years

I 12

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

before, and even then was greatly struck with her appearance ;
and she goes on to say, d propos of her death : ' The dress in
which she was to appear that very night at a Ball was spread
on the bed whence she had risen in all the health and gaiety
of early youth that fatal day, while she — the beloved, whom
her protectors would have shielded with anxious care from
the most genial shower of spring — was sleeping in death with
the waters of the liber booming over her beautiful form,
and sullying those long and silken tresses of which those
who loved her — and they were many — were so proud.' "

Many elegiac verses were written on the sad occasion of
her untimely fate. Amongst others those most admired were
by Lady Flora Hastings and Lord Compton ; but the following
were composed by Mrs. H. de Crespigny, Mrs. Bathurst's
sister : —

" Yes, she was all perfection's self could paint, —
Description sinks beneath the effort faint, —
Her father's talent, and her grandsire's mind.
With every charm of loveliness combined ;
Yet now^ in vain, the heart of all she won,
Britannia's child, the pride of Rome she shone,
Like some bright meteor in the starry sphere,
That burst with splendour but to disappear.
Oh ! who can tell, at that sad hour of awe,
That form divine, that soul-subduing grace.
The heaven that beamed from thy expressive face,
Float for a moment upon Tiber's wave,
Then sink for ever in a watery grave.
No hope was left, all human aid was vain.
Not e'en thy relics could that aid obtain,
Yet on that spot some angel sure will stray,
To chase each rude unhallowed foot away ;
Mute sorrow there shall build herself a shrine.
And breathe around the air some spell divine ;
Soft pity, bathed in tears, shall linger near.
And bid her memory live for ever there."

113 H

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

When all hopes of finding the body were over, Lord and
Lady Aylmer left Rome and retired to a villa near Geneva,
with Mrs. Bathurst and her remaining daughter.

The remainder of the tragic story we will give in Lady
Aylmer's words : —

" Mr. Mills was absent at Naples when the horrid catas-
trophe happened, but returned at once to the Villa Palatina,
and was of much comfort to us ; then when we went away,
he having been so much affected, left Rome for six months.
He returned there in September, and as he passed the Ponte
MoUe, he stopped his travelling carriage from the sad but
inevitable instinct of looking towards a spot which interests
though it pains us. Seeing a crowd assembled on the banks,
he inquired the cause, and learnt that the body of the poor
girl had just floated to the top, and was brought to shore, and
now laid on the banks. Thousands ran to see it ; apparently
she had been for a long time covered with sand, by which
she was preserved. The flesh remained untouched and the
face preserved its fulness, but the contact of the atmosphere
very rapidly produced decomposition. Her riding-hat was tied
under her chin, and she still had on a little veil, and her rings
on her fingers. The Minister of Hanover and the Charge
d'AiFaires of France took charge of the precious remains during
the absence of her family."

Mrs. Bathurst erected a monument on the spot near where
her daughter was lost. Lady Blessington writes : —

" The monument erected to the memory of the fair and
youthful Miss Bathurst was glittering in the sun when I
passed before it."

This monument, so applicable to the youth and beauty of

her whose fate it commemorates, is the work of Mr. Richard

114

'jf '"""^S??'

'-^-'*^.

Aliss RosH Bathlkst,
(From a iMimatiire helonoina to Col. Josceliii Bagot)

The Strange Disappearance of a Diplomat

Westmacott, to whose taste and skill it is highly creditable.
It has on it the following inscription : —

Beneath this stone are interred the remains of Rosa Bathurst
who was accidentally drowned in the Tiber on the i6th March
1824, whilst on a riding-party, owing to the swollen state of
the river and her spirited horse taking fright. She was the
daughter of Benjamin Bathurst, whose disappearance when on
a special mission to Vienna some years since was as tragical
as it is unaccountable — no positive account of his death ever
having been received by his distracted wife. His daughter,
who inherited her father's perfections, both personal and mental,
had completed her sixteenth year when she perished by as
disastrous a fate.

Reader

" Whoever thou art, who may pause to peruse this tale of
sorrow, let this awful lesson of the instability of human
happiness sink deep in thy mind. If thou art young and
lovely, build not thereon, for she who sleeps in death under
thy feet was the loveliest flower ever cropped in its bloom.
She was everything that the fondest heart could desire or the
eye covet — the joy and hope of her widowed mother who erects
this poor memorial of her irreparable loss : —

"'Early, bright, transient, chaste as morning dew.
She sparkled, was exhaled, and went to Heaven.' "

115

THE CAPTIVE PRINCESSES

In July 1854 there was a painful excitement amongst the
aristocracy of Russia at hearing that two Princesses of the
royal Georgian family, both of whom were Ladies-in-waiting
to the Empress, had been carried off with their children and
attendants by a body of Lesghiens, followers of the redoubt-
able Schamyl, and that they were all prisoners in his seraglio
at Dargi-Vedenno, an almost inaccessible fortress in the moun-
tains of the Caucasus.

Princess Anna Tchavtchavadze and Princess Varvara Orbe-
liani, her sister, were daughters of the Tzarivitch Ellico, seventh
son of George XIII. ,^ the last King of Georgia, who abdicated
in 1 801. Both these Princesses were beautiful women, but
Princess Anna specially so ; she was now twenty-eight years of
age, and was said to have the finest eyes in Georgia, the land of
fine eyes. Alexandre Dumas, who knew her in 1858, writes
that what struck him even more than her eyes was her pure
Greek profile, or rather her Georgian profile, which is Greek
plus animation. " La Grece, c'est Galatee encore marbre ; la
Georgie, c'est Galatee animee et devenue femme."

* George XIII., the last of the Bagratides to occupy the throne of Georgia
which his ancestors had held for the space of 1029 years, seeing no hope for his
country from the attacks of the Persians and the Turks, sent an embassy to St.
Petersburg offering his throne to the Emperor Paul, who accepted it, but was
murdered before he had time to do so publicly. His successor Alexander I.
issued a proclamation in 1801 announcing the fact to the people of that country,
and Georgia, to which was soon added Mingrelia and Imeritia, have ever since
formed part of the Russian Empire.

116

The Captive Princesses

Princess Varvara, who was two years younger, was in the
deepest mourning for her husband, who had been killed a few
months before whilst fighting against the Turks.

At the time of this episode both sisters were staying at
Tsenondahl, the seat of Prince David Tchavtchavadze, Princess
Anna's husbandJ

Tsenondahl, or Tsinondale, as it is also written, is in the
province of Kahetia in Georgia, five miles from the town of
TelafF and about thirty from Tiflis, the capital of Georgia. It
is situated in the midst of lovely scenery, the view from the
house overlooking the valley of the river Alazan with the
snow-capped peaks of the Caucasus rising one above the other
being extremely grand. The country, too, is highly favoured
by nature ; owing to the extreme mildness of the climate and
the richness of the soil, the land is generally very fertile, and
the fruit-gardens and vineyards are celebrated. Tsenondahl
itself in the month of June was like a fairy scene : thickets of
pomegranate bushes with their brilliant scarlet waxen flowers,
oleanders and myrtle growing wild, and endless quantities of
roses (this being the native land of the queen of flowers), added
to the lavish profusion of orange-flower and citron-blossom,
jasmine and honeysuckle, spreading around the most delicious
perfume.

The house was famed for its hospitality, and a large party
were assembled there in July 1854. It consisted of Prince
David Tchavtchavadze, his wife. Princess Anna Elinichna,
Princess of Georgia in her own right, and five of their children,

^ The Tchavtchavadze Princes descended from Andronic, Emperor of Con-
stantinople. The OrbeHani Princes are said to have had their origin in China in
the fifth century, and they have a picture representing the Deluge in which one
of their ancestors is swimming to the Ark and holding up his fif/rs dc /lo/'/essc' so
as to be admitted ! " E ben trovato.''

117

The Captive Princesses

Salome, Marie, Alexander, Tamara, and Lydia, whose ages
ranged from six years to three months. The relations staying
in the house were Princess Varvara Orbeliani (Princess Anna's
sister), with her baby boy of six months, and her niece, Princess
Nina BaratofF, a beautiful girl of eighteen. Also Princess Tinia
Orbeliani, an old lady of seventy-four. Besides these there
was Madame Dran9ay the French governess, and the Prince's
agent or steward, Ensign Gamgrelidzey (a man of high birth),
and his wife, Daredjana, and an old retired captain, Achverdoff.
The indoor servants included an old nurse of ninety-seven years,
who had lived in the family for three generations, thirteen or
fourteen maid-servants, and three men-servants.

As a rule. Princess Anna came to Tsenondahl in May and
stayed there till October, when the whole party moved to
the family residence in Tiflis for the winter ; but this spring
rumours having been afloat that some of the redoubtable
Schamyl's Lesghiens, the dreaded enemies of the Kahetians, were
approaching the cordon of forts which separated the two districts,
the departure from Tiflis was delayed until Prince David
had made inquiries. The reports he received were perfectly re-
assuring ; troops were being sent to Telaff, and nature assisted
to protect Tsenondahl, for the heavy rains had so swollen the
river that it would be impossible for the Lesghiens to cross
it. The family, therefore, and their numerous dependants
moved there in June. At the end of the month the Prince,
who was a Colonel in the Russian army and aide-de-camp to the
General commanding in the Caucasus, had to leave his family
to take command of a fortress situated about two days'
journey off, where he had some serious fighting ; but when
he managed to despatch to his beloved young wife a hasty

pencil note to assure her of his safety, he little thought that

ii8

The Captive Princesses

she and her belongings were going through worse dangers than
he was.

It was almost immediately after his departure that the
inhabitants of Tsenondahl were horrified to perceive a great glare
in the sky in the direction of Teiaff, for they guessed at once
that, notwithstanding what the Prince had been told, the
Lesghiens must have managed to cross the river Alazan, and that
the light was caused by the burning of the crops as they passed
through them, which was the universal custom of these bar-
barians. Still Princess Anna thought they were safe, and when,
late at night, the peasants came to the house to entreat the
family to take refuge with them in the woods, she refused, and
said she would not go until her husband sent to tell her to do
so ; and the old Princess Tinia laughed at their fears, and said
that during all her long life she had been threatened with a
descent of the Lesghiens, but that she had never even seen one
nor yet his horse ! The next day, however, the fires were much
nearer, and Princess Anna, acceding to the wishes of those around
her, began to pack up the silver, diamonds, and other precious
possessions and prepare for a move to Tiflis. She sent to TelafF
for post-horses, but the answer came that there were none avail-
able for the moment, and that they could not be sent till seven
on the next morning. That evening everything was ready for
the departure early the next day. As night approached the
ladies, beginning to be uneasy, felt that they would like to be
together, and consequently they all congregated in the room of
the Princess Varvara, put the children to sleep on the floor, and
extinguished the lights. Sleep they could not, and they went
out on to the balcony. From there they now saw with horror
that the glare in the sky was so great that all chance of flight

was useless. They still watched on in silence, and at four o'clock

119

The Captive Princesses

in the morning they heard a shot in their garden followed by
absolute silence. What did this mean ? — it was not an attack,
but was it not a signal ? At this agonising moment of suspense
the brave Madame Dran9ay, the French governess, insisted upon
going out to reconnoitre. She accordingly went down into the
garden and stealthily crept towards the private chapel hidden
amongst the vines. From there she saw a man with a gun in
his hand, who was no doubt the one whose shot they had heard,
which they rightly guessed was a signal that Tsenondahl was
unprotected. Madame Drangay saw also that the floods had
subsided, and that armed men were crossing the torrent. There
was now no doubt that an attack was imminent, and she quickly
returned to the house where she found that Princess Anna,
prostrated with fatigue, had dozed ofi^, and that Princess Orbeliani
was wrapt in prayer.

Before seven the family physician arrived on horseback from
Telaff and urged the Princess to fly at once. How could she do
so ; the horses had not arrived, and there were six young children
to move, three of them being infants in arms ! The servants
had packed the valuables in the Prince's travelling carriages, and
by eight o'clock the post-horses had arrived and were harnessed,
so that in a few moments the party would have started — when
suddenly old Captain Achverdoff exclaimed, " Modian ! (they
come !) les Lesghiens ! " This cry was succeeded by an indescrib-
able moment of terror ; every one seemed paralysed ; the men who
had brought the post-horses fled. The Doctor seized a gun and
met the horde of barbarians at the entrance, fired and killed the
leader, which caused such a confusion that he himself miraculously
managed to escape. The old Captain, though he was an invalid,
also saved his life ; he ran to the end of the garden and, climbing
up into a tree, remained there till all danger was past. Mean-

I20

The Captive Princesses

while the Princesses, with their children and the female servants,
took shelter in a belvedere at the extreme top of the house,
hoping that possibly the Lesghiens might be content with the
plunder they found in the lower rooms. The terrified women
crouched together in the darkest corner, the Princesses alone pre-
serving their presence of mind. " Pray," said Princess Anna, " for
death is near ; " then turning to the French governess, who had
only been eighteen days at Tsenondahl, she said, " Quelle fatale
destinee vous reunit a nous en ce moment. Pardonnez-m_oi
d'en avoir ete plus ou moins la cause." Princess Orbeliani said
she had no fear of death, which would unite her to her lost one,
but she dreaded seeing those dear to her killed ; so she placed
herself immediately in front of the door so as to die first, and
the beautiful Nina Baratoff insisted on remaining at her side.

Nearly an hour passed thus whilst the Lesghiens were busily
occupied plundering the twenty-two rooms below, and sounds
were heard of smashing of furniture and breaking of glass,
accompanied by demoniacal cries — a veritable Pandemonium.
Altogether there were inside and outside the house, according
to one account, about three thousand of these mountaineers.
Although we shall continue to call them Lesghiens, the general
term for all inhabitants of Daghestan, these men were really
Checknians — some of Schamyl's picked troops, only employed for
the most daring enterprises. At last, their work of pillage and
destruction being over, they began to look for the inhabitants of
the house, and finally they mounted the staircase leading to the
belvedere, forcing open the door which the unhappy fugitives
had fastened up, rushed in, seized the women and children, and
dragged them down the stairs, which being lightly built gave
way under the heavy rush, and all were precipitated to the floor
in a confused mass. Then a terrible contest ensued amongst the

121

The Captive Princesses

brutal Lesghiens as to who should be their prey, and each one
was specially anxious to secure the *' Khancha " (wife of the chief),
so that before long Princess Anna had nearly all her thin summer
clothes torn ofFher back, and she literally remained in her chemise
and stays, her magnificent hair mercifully forming a covering for
her otherwise bare neck and shoulders. Her rings were dragged
off her fingers, and her earrings would have been torn from her
ears had she not removed them and given them up. Even her
little baby Lydia had her only covering taken from off her, and
the poor mother tried to shelter her in her arms. After the
most important of the Lesghiens had each secured one of the
party, they prepared to start with their captives, whom they
placed behind them on their horses. The old Princess Tinia and
the nurse of ninety-seven they purposely left behind, concluding
that, as they were old, no one would care to ransom them; but
they set the house on fire before they left.

When the terrible march began, those that were not con-
sidered of sufficient importance to ride had to walk, and when
Madame Drangay, who was amongst this number, was dropping
from exhaustion, the Lesghien in charge of her beat her with
his whip every time she lagged behind. She, too, had had all
her clothes torn from her and remained with only her under
garments. Little Tamara, Princess Anna's child of four, cried
so much that one of the barbarians put her head-foremost into
a sack, which he then tied to his saddle. Princess Orbeliani and
her niece met with the best of treatment ; the latter had fallen to
the share of a young Checknian of good family, who seemed
struck with her beauty and awed by her gorgeous Georgian
dress, which she was wearing at the time of the raid, but even
she had her arms tied behind her back. Crossing the river
Alazan, the women were drenched to the skin, and many

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The Captive Princesses

narrowly escaped drowning. After reaching the opposite bank,
a small band of Georgians came up and attacked the Lesghiens,
in hopes of delivering the Princess ; but their noble efforts only
added to the horrors, as the mountaineers, thinking this handful
of men was part of a large detachment, put spurs to their
horses and made them fly over ditches and rocks, nothing stop-
ping them, so that the unfortunate ladies that were mounted
behind were shaken to pieces, and had the greatest difficulty to
keep from falling. Princess Anna's strength was utterly ex-
hausted, and she felt that she could no longer support her
infant with her right arm whilst she held on to her captor
with the left. In this terrible dilemma she screamed to him
that she must drop the child, but he either did not hear her
voice above the din around or did not understand what she
said, and in a few moments, when the horse gave a plunge
over some obstacle, the poor little Lydia fell from her mother's
numbed arm. For a moment Princess Anna was still able to
hold it up by one foot, but only for a moment, and then the
child fell in the road. As the horse on which the Princess was
mounted never stopped for an instant she was spared the sight
of seeing her little darling trampled under the horses that were
following. One of the Lesghiens lifted the body up, and as it
was still breathing, plunged his dagger in her heart.

Little Lydia was not the only victim. When the Lesghiens
resolved to fly instead of fight, they wished to get rid of all
those prisoners who impeded their flight ; out of a hundred
that they had with them, sixty were now killed with the knife.
Two only of these were of the Princess's party — Daredjana, wife
of the Prince's agent, being one ; her body was afterwards found
pierced with wounds. As they got clear of the shots of their
assailants, the Lesghiens picked up fresh prisoners from the

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The Captive Princesses

Georgian villages which they passed through, and then set fire
to their houses. Towards night the cavalcade came to one of
the forests common to that country, so dense that persons
wishing to pass through them have to cut their way in front of
them. The thick dress of the barbarians protected their limbs,
but the unfortunate women, forced on through briars and bushes,
were streaming with blood. Many of them sunk down saying
they preferred to die there, but the cruel whip forced them on.
At last there came a time when the prisoners fell and the whip
no longer was able to make them rise. Princess Anna's nurse
had three sabre cuts on her head, and one of her fingers cut off;
and Princess Nina saw a Lesghien, who was bothered by the
incessant cries of the child he was carrying off, take it by the
heels and dash its brains out against a rock as he passed.

The Lesghiens directed their course to the fortress of
Pokhalsky, situated at the top of a high rock. As the captives
reached the base of it, they found ten thousand men ranged in
two lines, through which they had to walk. These terrible-
looking barbarians, seeing women for the first time with their
faces uncovered, gave vent to horrible cries, and would have
seized them, had it not been for some of Schamyl's " na'ibs "
who kept them back. As it was one got hold of Madame
Dran9ay and tried to drag her towards him.

" Can she sew .? " he asked.

" Yes," said one of the Georgian prisoners, who wished to
do a bad turn to a Frenchwoman.

" Well, then, I will give three roubles for her," said the man.

Princess Orbeliani intervened, saying, " This is the wife of
a French General ; she will pay a ransom."

" Oh, then, leave her for the Imam," was the reply.

Schamyl's "Intendant" now joined them, and conducted

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The Captive Princesses

them into the fortress where his master was then staying, their
means of access being a ladder. A gleam of happiness came to
them here at finding a relation, Prince Ivan Tchavtchavadze,
who was also one of Schamyl's prisoners. When Princess Anna
reached the top, she was so enfeebled that she could only totter
and had to be supported. Her appearance was pitiable indeed.
Her one remaining garment was much torn, her dishevelled
hair entangled with brambles, her shoulders covered with clotted
blood, and her inflamed and bleeding feet were almost without
skin. It was then for the first time that she heard that her
little Lydia was dead, and on hearing of her fate she completely
collapsed, and her sister feared for her reason. A fortunate
incident aroused her ; she heard an infant crying piteously, and
called out, " My child, my child ! "

" No, Princess, not your daughter," said a voice, " but my
little sister exactly the same age, who has taken nothing since
yesterday morning, when her mother was killed, and she will
die too."

" Give her to me," said the Princess, *' and I will feed her."

And this she continued to do, which probably saved her own
life as well as the child's. Some time after one of her women
arrived with Princess Anna's little boy, who was in a dreadful
condition ; his gums were clenched and he was quite insensible.
He had been separated from his nurse ever since they left
Tsenondahl and almost entirely without food. The girl who
carried him could only give him water to drink, and once she
picked up by the side of the road some nuts which she chewed
before giving them to the infant.

Princess Orbeliani, as we have said, was treated with more

consideration than any of the other captives, in consequence

of the great admiration the Lesghiens had for her late husband,

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The Captive Princesses

which came about in this wise. Some years previously he had
been taken prisoner by some of them, and was conducted before
Schamyl, who saw in every prisoner of importance a chance of
exchange with his son,

"Your liberty depends upon yourself," said Schamyl.

" Tell me your price," replied the Prince, "and if it is not
above my fortune, I will pay it,"

" It is not a question of money."

" What is it, then ,? "

" Head for head."

" I do not understand,"

" Write to the Emperor Nicholas to give me back my son,
and in exchange I will give you your liberty,"

" You are mad," said the Prince, "as if one could ask such

a thing of the Emperor," and he turned away from the Imam,

who ordered him back to his prison, where he was kept six

months. At the end of that time Schamyl saw him again and

made the same proposition, receiving the same answer. "Very

well," said Schamyl, " put him in the Pit." The Pit at Veden

is something like the Mamertine Prison at Rome. Prisoners are

taken down into it by a ladder, and given a jug of water and

some black bread. It is certain death before long from the wet

alone. From time to time a message was given to Prince

Orbeliani asking him if he consented to write to the Emperor,

to which the same reply was given. At last he got too weak

to answer, and Schamyl was told that the Prince would be dead

in a week. He then had him taken out and placed in a

courtyard which was surrounded by cells, from one of which

the Im^m could see all that passed. A nafb then came forward

with nine men armed with guns.

"Ellico Orbeliani," said the naYb, "Schamyl, irritated at your

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The Captive Princesses

refusal to comply with his wishes, has decided that you shall
die, but the choice of death is left to you."

"I choose that which will release me the quickest from the
pam of being his prisoner. You have armed men with you ;
let me be shot."

Accordingly the prisoner was placed with his back to the wall
opposite the cell from which Schamyl was looking on ; the men
loaded, put their guns in position, and were about to fire, when
Schamyl appeared, made a sign, and the guns were lowered.
"Ellico," said the Imam, "they told me you were brave,
now I have seen with my eyes that they told me the truth.
I exact nothing from you, you are free."

Prince EUico left Veden after a captivity of nine months,
leaving a lasting memory of his courage. It was thus that these
Lesghiens, hearing that one of their captives was the widow of
the man they admired so much, ferocious and brutal as they
were, showed Princess Orbeliani and her child a sort of rough
attention. The Princess profited by this state of things and
seized the occasion to ask what was likely to be demanded as
ransom, for their party. A naib went and questioned Schamyl,
who said that the conditions would be the release of his son
and a million roubles silver. The poor Princesses heard this in
despair, as they feared both would be impossible.

As Schamyl has now so much to do with our captive
Princesses we will here say a little about him. This celebrated
Circassian chief and warrior-prophet was born in 1797 at Himri
in Daghestan, one of the wildest spots of the Caucasus. Of lowly
Tartar extraction, he was for a long time only one of the
Murides, or bodyguards, of the Imam Hamsed Bey, but after
the assassination of the latter he was elected to succeed him ; and
then began that career which gave him a world-wide renown.

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The Captive Princesses

He managed to keep in check the best of the Russian generals,
and his passionate love for his native home and freedom gained
him the sympathy of all Europe. He was equally distinguished
as a legislator and as a. warrior, and was considered in the light
of a Prophet. It was said, " Mahomet is the first prophet of
Allah ; Schamyl is the second." A poet wrote of him, " He has
lightning in his eyes and flowers on his lips." In 1839 came
the greatest blow he ever received ; the fortress of Achulgo, or
Akhoulgo, which then was his home, was besieged by the
Russian General Grabbe, and he was driven out. He managed to
escape to Dargi-Vedenno, but his eldest son, Djemmal-Eddin,^
was taken prisoner and conveyed to St. Petersburg. Schamyl
offered ransom and prisoners in exchange for the boy, but in
vain. The Emperor Nicholas refused to give him up. Schamyl's
despair was great, and the child's mother, Patimate, died, it was
said, of grief in consequence. The Emperor had the young
Circassian brought up as a Prince, and he was given the best
possible education. In time he became Nicholas's aide-de-camp
and Colonel of a regiment, and was to all intents and purposes
a thorough Russian. He forgot his mother tongue, but spoke
French and German fluently. He went much into society,
where he was generally liked. This brings him up to the
time of our story, but we shall have more to say of him
later on.

We left the unfortunate captives as they thought at the
end of their terrible journey, for they had reached the fortress
of Pokhalsky, where Schamyl was staying. Shortly after their
arrival he sent some one to Princess Anna to say that he wished
to speak to her.

"Let him come, then. I shall not go to him."

1 Or"Jamala'd-din."
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The Captive Princesses

" But he is Imam," said the messenger.

*' And I am Princess," replied the prisoner.

When Schamyl heard this he said, " Very well, take them
on to Veden ; 1 will see them there."

Whether he thought, by still further torturing them, that he
would break their spirit we know not, but the poor captives had
to recommence their painful march, and go on farther into the
fastnesses of the mountains of Daghestan, a journey which took
them, including stoppages, twenty more days. Before starting
the Princesses begged for some clothes, and they were given a
large bundle, one of many stacked in Schamyl's tent — no
doubt plunder from his enemies. In it they found a most weird
assortment, but they v/ere thankful for any covering. They
speedily divided the garments, those falling to Madame
Dran9ay's share being a coachman's old suit ! During this
second half of their wanderings the captives continued to
undergo every sort of trial and exposure. They had often to
proceed on foot, the route being impracticable on horseback, and
constantly got drenched to the skin, as when they ascended the
high mountains they had to pass though unmelted avalanches,
often sinking in the snow. This gave Princess Anna ague and
her sister fever. At other times the heat was intense, which
was most distressing to the weakened captives. When they
stopped for rest in the aouls, or villages, it was even worse,
as they were generally all packed with their servants into one
low room with a suffocating stench and infested with vermin,
and the only food they got was usually such as they could not
eat. The marvel is how they survived such various trials and
privations. At last in one of the aouh they came to they
met with a Good Samaritan in the shape of a "Moulla" (or
Elder of a village), who told Princess Orbeliani that he had

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The Captive Princesses

been a prisoner in Russia, and was exchanged for her husband,
and in consequence he now had obtained permission from
Schamyl to conduct them the remainder of the way to Veden,
and this good man was always trying to do little things to
ameliorate their hardships, and got them some better food.
Finally, they reached one of the largest aouls in the country,
where they stayed two weeks, and where they got some rest, the
first since they had been carried off. To their great delight
they managed to secure a piece of soap in exchange for some
beads. The kind MouUa also got them some red leather to
make themselves shoes, which they had been without hitherto.
They were at a loss how to make them, but Princess Nina
Baratoff, hearing that a Checknian lady in the aoul would be
able to help them in this respect, went off to see her. She
found her gorgeously attired, sitting in a room surrounded by
plates and dishes taken from Tsenondahl ! She made no
remark about this, but only begged for needles and thread and
some instruction in shoe-making — all of which she got, and
the Princesses succeeded in making themselves wearable though
rather clumsy foot-gear.

The last stage of their journey was through marvellously
beautiful country ; their road lay through lovely gardens, and
they came to a mountain covered from the summit to the base
with the most enchanting verdure and magnificent flowers, the
like of which the Princesses had never beheld even in hot-
houses. Wearied and exhausted as they were, they could not
help making exclamations of wonder and admiration.

At last they reached Dargi-Vedenno, or Veden as it is often
called, when the Princesses and little Tamdra were at once con-
ducted to the Seraglio — that is to say, the inner court, or the part

of the Mussulman's house in which the family reside. Here

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The Captive Princesses

they were immediately surrounded by a pack of women, includ-
ing Schamyl's three wives. Zaidette, the first wife, who was
directly descended from Mahomet, appeared to be about twenty-
four ; she was of Tartar origin, and not at all pretty, and had
a sly, malicious smile, a true index to her nature, as our captives
found to their cost. Shouanette, the second wife, was an
Armenian, who had been taken captive, but who adored Schamyl,
past thirty but good-looking, and had a very kind expression ;
the Princesses took to her at once and they never altered their
opinion. They received nothing but kindness and warm affec-
tion from her. The third wife, Aminette, was only seventeen
years old and most attractive, but was quite kept in the back-
ground. She told them that she hated Zaidette and loved
Shouanette. The first and second of the wives brought the
Princesses various refreshments, which, as can well be imagined,
they were most thankful to get. Tea, white bread, honey,
cheese, and to their amazement some delicious sweetmeats,
which they knew were only to be had from one French con-
fectioner in Tiflis. The next evening they were informed that
Schamyl was about to pay them a visit, and soon after he
appeared, but did not cross the threshold of their room, and
was provided with a stool at the open door. Schamyl was at
this time fifty-six years of age, and although he was only of
medium height, he had a wonderful look of strength and dignity.
The conversation, which took place through an interpreter, began
by inquiries after their health, which must to them have
savoured of irony, and he added —

" I am astonished at your having all arrived in safety, and
I can see in that a promise that God will now grant me the
wish I have so long cherished, that of redeeming my son who
is with the Russians. I have now come to tell you that no

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The Captive Princesses

harm will come to you here, and that you will be treated like
the members of my own family, on one condition — that you
neither write nor receive letters without my permission. If
you attempt to carry on any secret correspondence with your
relations, or if they offend in a similar manner on their side,
then I will kill you all and your children, as 1 did ten Russian
officers, who were prisoners here, and received a letter baked
in a loaf. Remember, too, the young Russian Countess at
Stavropol, who was on the point of being married when she
was taken by my men. That girl could have been ransomed
long ago, but she presumed to set me at defiance, and I would
not listen to any of her relations' offers of ransom."

Princess Tchavtchavadze was so angry at the tone of
Schamyl's speech that she would not answer, but her sister
said —

" You need not threaten us. Our position and our educa-
tion forbid us to break our word."

This finished the interview. The next day was passed in
introductions. Schamyl's three little daughters came to see
them, Napicette, Patimate, and Najabal ; and also his three
mothers-in-law, who appeared to be relegated to the cooking
department. Then there was a Tartar governess and many
others of secondary importance, including a number of very
young girls, some being captives, who, when they reached the
age of sixteen, were given by Schamyl to those of his officers
whom he wished to please.

After a few weeks of unbroken and tiresome monotony

the Princesses were greatly excited by receiving a parcel from

Kahetia containing articles of clothing as well as boots and

shoes, combs, soap, and other necessaries, and with these things

was enclosed a copy of " The Imitation of Christ," which gave

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The Captive Princesses

them the greatest satisfaction. Meanwhile, though some of
their troubles had ceased, our captives were not lying on a bed
of roses, even though Schamyl had given orders that they were
to be well treated. The small room, which at first was shared
by the whole family and all their servants, was only lit by one
unglazed window not two feet square, and the smell and smoke
from the dung fire was so insupportable that they were obliged
to leave the door open, which caused a terrible draught.
Princess Orbeliani was consequently attacked with inflammation
of the eyes, and she ultimately lost the sight of one of them.
Their food was very scanty, especially when Schamyl was away
and Zaidette ruled, and Princess Orbeliani also contracted a
disease of the digestive organs from which she died many
years after.

Only once during their eight months' captivity were they
allowed to see any one from the outer world, and that only
for ten minutes. One of the Tchavtchavadze serfs brought
Princess Anna a message from her husband, saying that he was
well and hoped for news of her. When this messenger returned
to Prince David, he told his master that he should not have
recognised the Princess, so pale and altered had she become, and
she had lost nearly all her beautiful luxuriant hair. Meanwhile
negotiations were always going on between Prince David and
Schamyl concerning the amount of the ransom to be paid. The
former had offered ;/,40,ooo roubles silver, but Schamvl asked
for a million besides the restitution of his son and other
prisoners, amounting to one hundred and seventeen in all.
Many letters passed between them : Schamyl would not give in,
and at one time he threatened to break off all negotiations
and to divide the prisoners amongst his naibs ! This state
of affairs went on for months, and the poor captive Princesses

The Captive Princesses

were beginning to despair, their troubles being aggravated by
the mutiny of most of their servants, who complained that
sufficient steps were not being taken for their release.

It is time now to go back to Djemmal-Eddin, Schamyl's
eldest son, who was the innocent cause of the raid on
Tsenondahl, We have said how, taken prisoner as a child by
the Russians, he had become one of them, and was a favoured
member of the Court society of St. Petersburg. For sixteen
years his father had been trying to get him back, but without
success ; and now that Schamyl had these Princesses of high
descent and position in his power, he determined not to let them
go unless he received back his son in exchange, as well as a large
ransom. After months of negotiations the Emperor Nicholas
sent one day for his Caucasian aide-de-camp, and said to him in
a very grave manner :

" Djemmal-Eddin, you are free to accept or refuse the pro-
position which I have to make. I do not wish in any way
to influence you, but I think, if you accept, you will be
doing something worthy of you. Two Princesses of Georgia,
Princess Tchavtchavadze and Princess Orbelidni, have been made
prisoners by your father, who says he will not give them up
unless you return to him. If you say yes, they will be free ; if
you say no, they will remain prisoners for ever. Do not answer
me in a hurry : I will give you three days to think it over."

The young man smiled sadly.

"Sire," said he, "it does not take three days to teach the
son of Schamyl and the servant of the Emperor Nicholas what
he ought to do ; Caucasian by birth, I am a Russian at heart —
I shall die in the mountains where nothing will be in harmony
with the education I have received, but I shall die thinking
that I have accomplished a duty. The three days that your

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The Captive Princesses

Majesty gives me will not be required for my decision, but
for my farewells. From this moment 1 am at your Majesty's
disposition, and will start when I am ordered."

Without a complaint this noble young man gave up his
life, his friends, his lady-love — for it was said he had fixed his
affections upon a fair Russian — and hastened his departure,
being accompanied by Prince Tchavtchavadze, who was at St.
Petersburg arranging about the ransom.

In consequence of the self-sacrifice of Djemmal-Eddin, on
March 5, 1855, the Princesses were informed that they were
free, just eight months after they were taken captive. When
the day came for their departure Shouanette and Aminette were
plunged in grief, and their leave-taking was most affecting.
Zaidette sent to ask them if they would like to buy back any of
the spoil taken from Tsenondahl ; but when they saw the things,
they were so battered and broken that they declined to deal.
Amongst them were the fragments of a magnificent diamond
bouquet which had been given by the great Empress Catherine
to Prince David's grandmother, and which was quite a work
of art.

The exchange of prisoners was to take place, by Schamyl's
wish, on the borders of the river Mitcnik, which divided his
forests from the Russian territory, and the meeting was to be
under a certain tree fixed upon by him. His second son was to
conduct the Princesses at the head of a large escort, who with
their family and servants made a party of twenty-two. For
their conveyance four arbas^ vehicles with four wheels, were
made such as had never before been seen in Checkni. Later
on the cavalcade was joined by Schamyl himself in the midst of
his " Murids." The two parties arrived almost simultaneously,
when the brothers dismounted and threw themselves into each

The Captive Princesses

other's arms, all the Murids crying, "Allah, il Allah." The
Princesses, when the Russian regiments came in view, got into
a state of indescribable agitation, and descending from their
carriages began to pray before they were conducted to Prince
David. Meanwhile the cases containing the 40,000 roubles
were passed to the Murids. Schamyl's people had been induced
to abate their demand through the intervention of a hermit who
was held in great awe by them. Djemmal-Eddin was then pre-
sented to the Princesses, who thanked him as their liberator ;
he had an affectionate parting with General Nicola'i and, shedding
the last tears for Russia that were permitted him, withdrew, and
after relinquishing his Russian uniform put on the costume of
his race, and mounting a beautiful black horse caparisoned in
scarlet disappeared with his newly-found brother and proceeded
to meet Schamyl. When they met, Djemmal-Eddin dismounted
and was received in the arms of his father, who was much
affected, tears flowing in streams down his face and beard.

The Princesses on their return journey insisted on attending
a thanksgiving service in the church of the fortress of Kourinsk,
and received the Holy Sacrament there, and again when they
reached Tiflis, before going to their house, they stopped at the
church for prayer.

The rejoicings throughout Georgia and especially in Tiflis

at the deliverance of the Princesses was very remarkable. The

whole party remained at the latter place for more than a month

to recruit their health, which had been so cruelly tried — in several

cases beyond recovery. The Georgian servants, excepting one

nurse who had been carried off during their march and whose

whereabouts they had failed to trace, all returned to Tsenondahl,

and the Princesses with their children started off for Moscow to

see their mother, Anastasia, Princess of Georgia, who lived there,

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The Captive Princesses

and who had suffered greatly from anxiety on their account.
They then went on to St. Petersburg, where they were eager to
assure the Emperor personally of their deep gratitude. He,
however, died before they got there, and Princess Orbeliani
wrote to his successor, the Emperor Alexander, who answered
her letter in the following manner : —

"Princess Varvara Elinichna, — Your expressions of
gratitude to my ever-memorable parent have deeply affected me.
The liberation from captivity of yourself and family was the
object of his earnest wishes ; but it did not please God to fulfil
them until after his death. Consoled by the thought that the
measures indicated by him had the desired result, it gives me
great pleasure to assure you of the sincere joy with which I
heard of your return from the mountains. In the hope that the
Most High will reward you for all the difficult trials you have
suffered by developing in your son those lofty qualities which
distinguish the noblemen of Georgia, I remain for ever, your
well-disposed, Alexander."

Madame Dran9ay accompanied the Princesses as far as St.
Petersburg, and then went on to Paris, having, as can well be
understood, no wish to return to the Caucasus. She did not
live very long, and died of a disease contracted during her
captivity. She did, however, live long enough to commit to
paper her experiences, from which many of the details of this
account are taken.

Poor Djemmal-Eddin renounced civilisation with deep regret,
but gave in to all his father's wishes, even to the agreement that
he should only write very occasionally to his friends, and that
his letters should not be long, and that he should see no Russian
books or newspapers. He made a journey of inspection round
all the territory over which Schamyl reigned ; and on his return

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The Captive Princesses

to Dargi-Vedenno he married the wife chosen for him, the
daughter of Talgik, a celebrated naib. Djemmal-Eddin refused
to interfere in military affairs, but occupied himself with the
superintendence of the administrative and judicial proceedings.
The sole amusement which he could enter into was the chase.
It was most pathetic how he strove to do his duty as Schamyl's
son, but all his surroundings were so distasteful to him, and the
longings for his former life were so strong in him, that he could
not fight against them, and he gradually sank, into a sort of decline.
In the month of February 1858 Colonel Prince Minsky,
commanding a regiment at Kasafiourte, was told a man from
the mountains wished to see him. On being introduced, he said
he came from Schamyl, whose son was attacked by an illness
which the Tartar doctors did not understand, and he prayed for
some advice from a European doctor. Prince Minsky sent for
the doctor of the regiment, who, on hearing the symptoms
of Djemmal-Eddin, prescribed and prepared medicines for him,
which the messenger took back. Four months later the man
reappeared ; Djemmal-Eddin was rapidly getting worse, and
Schamyl begged that the doctor might come and see him, which
he accordingly did, leaving three na'ibs as hostages ! After an
arduous and dangerous journey the doctor arrived at the aoul,
where he was conducted to the house of the invalid. He
found him in a poor room with very little furniture, and lighted
by one tallow candle. He was no longer able to leave his bed,
and the doctor, after staying three days, left feeling certain that
nothing could save him. He saw that the malady was as much
moral, so to say, as physical, and that Djemmal-Eddin had not
the slightest wish to recover. His life had been for the last
three years a living death. He did not, however, make a com-
plaint of any kind, and was patient and resigned. Three

138

The Captive Princesses

months later he was dead, and this sad episode, as far as he was
concerned, was closed for ever.

His poor father was plunged in grief, but probably never
realised that he had practically killed him. It was remarked that
Schamyl never had any successes after his son's death, and only a
year after, the Russian general, Bariatinsky, managed, by placing
a cordon round the mountains, to trap the old chieftain, who was
taken at Gounib. His life was spared, and he was conveyed to St.
Petersburg. The Emperor Alexander granted him a pension for
himself and his family, and a residence at Kief. He was admitted
into the highest society, and our King Edward saw him at the
Court of St. Petersburg. It is said that, at one of the Emperor's
entertainments, he was so struck with the appearance of the
Russian ladies, that he exclaimed, " I was far from expecting to
find Mahomet's Paradise on earth." Schamyl did not long sur-
vive his fall ; he asked permission to go to Mecca, which was
granted, and he died at Medina in 1871.

The two principal characters of this episode are now both
dead. Princess Orbeliani, who was beloved by all who knew
her, and who was a most delightful creature in every way, died
at Cannes in 1883, tenderly nursed at the last by her brother,
Prince Nicholas of Georgia, by Mademoiselle Demidoff, and by

her English friend, Lady H . Her only son. Prince George,

the infant who so nearly succumbed during the raid, and
who was now in the Imperial Guard, started off with his cousin.
Princess Nina Baratoff, as soon as he heard of his mother's
danger, but did not arrive in time to see her alive. The funeral
took place at Nice, but ten days after the remains of Varvara,
Princess of Georgia, was taken to her native country, where
they were laid at Mtzkhetha, beside the tombs of the kings
who were her ancestors.

139

The Captive Princesses

Princess Anna Tchavtchavadz6 survived her sister 'many-
years, and it is curious to think that there should have been
still living in Paris two or three years ago a Princess who had
undergone such strange vicissitudes, and that some of her
children who were exposed to such terrible trials are alive
and well.

140

" THE PEASANT PEERESS "

" Born in a cottage, in a cottage bred,
In a cottage living, from a cottage wed."

On the 23rd of May 1776 the noble house of Cecil assembled
at St. George's Church, Hanover Square, to assist at the nuptials
of Mr. Henry Cecil and Miss Emma Vernon. This marriage
seemed in every way most suitable ; Mr. Cecil was the nephew
and heir-presumptive of Brownlow, ninth Earl of Exeter, and the
bride was an heiress, sole daughter of Thomas Vernon, Esq., of
Hanbury Hall in Worcestershire. The only thing that could be
said against it was that the bridegroom was somewhat young,
being only just twenty-two years of age.

Apparently Mr. and Mrs. Henry Cecil lived happily together
for some years, though they had the sorrow of losing their only
child, a boy, who died an infant.

In the year 1780 the Rev. William Sneyd, a handsome though

sickly young man, came as curate in charge to Hanbury, which

now belonged to the Cecils and where they lived. Mr. Cecil,

being acquainted with his family, showed him much kindness.

He had him constantly to dinner, and when the weather was bad

often put him up for the night, taking pity on his delicacy. In

May 1789 Mr. Sneyd removed to Birmingham, which was about

twenty miles off. Whilst there he fell seriously ill, and overcome

with remorse, sent for Mr. Cecil, and from his bed of sickness

confessed that he had had a guilty intimacy with his wife.

Mr. Cecil would have condoned the offence and was prepared to

141

" The Peasant Peeress "

forgive his wife, but was weak enough to allow her to go and (as

she said) bid farewell to Mr. Sneyd ; with the result that she

made the sick man get up from his bed and go off with her to

Exeter, where they lived as man and wife. This elopement took

place in June 1789 ; and in Easter term 1790 Mr. Cecil brought

an action in the King's Bench at Westminster against Mr. Sneyd.

The trial was before Lord Kenyon, and Mr. Cecil obtained a

verdict of ;^iooo damages, which would have been much more

had not Mr. Sneyd's counsel, Erskine, pleaded the poverty of his

client. As it was, being unable to pay the sum, he was confined

in the Marshalsea four years, at the end of which time he was

let off, and it was said ultimately became mad. In June of the

same year as his action in the King's Bench (1790) Mr. Cecil

commenced proceedings for a divorce in the Consistory Court

and obtained it in March 1791, but it appears that an Act of

Parliament alone could in those days dissolve the marriage or

enable him to marry again. This Act was obtained, but did not

receive the royal assent till June 1791.

Meanwhile Mr. Cecil, feeling thoroughly disgusted with the

world in general, determined to retire from it to some spot where

he would not be known. Taking the name of " John Jones,"

and disguising himself with a peculiar wig, he started off in

a travelling-chaise and arrived one November night during a

blinding snowstorm at the rural village of Bolas Magna in

Shropshire, not far from Wellington, having, it was said, lost his

way. Be this as it may, the weather was too tempestuous for

him to continue travelling farther that night-; so he put up at the

" Blue Boar Inn," and the next day showed no wish to go farther.

Dismissing the chaise he proceeded to look for a lodging, which

he found in the house of one Hoggins on Bolas Common. There

has been much discussion as to whether this residence was only

142

" The Peasant Peeress "

an ordinary cottage, or whether it was a farm, and also whether
Hoggins could be termed a farmer or whether he was only
" a horse and cow doctor." Anyhow the house was large enough
to hold Mr. and Mrs. Hoggins and their six children and to
provide a spare room for the stranger; also Hoggins was of
sufficient status to have been twice appointed overseer, and his
wife was the daughter of a clergyman named Bayley. Mr. Jones,
as we shall now call him, added some comforts to the room
provided for him in the Hoggins' house, and remained there
nearly two years —

" The world forgetting, by the world forgot,"

During this time he often went away — which he was obliged to
do, in the first instance, on business regarding his divorce, and at
other times to draw his money ; but no one guessed his identity,
and he had no communication with his relations, who thought
he was abroad. The good people at Bolas at first rather fought
shy of him; finding he had always plenty of money at his
command and no ostensible means of support, they imagined he
must be a highwayman, which would account for his periodical
mysterious disappearances. These doubts may possibly have
influenced a beautiful young girl of the name of Taylor, to whom
he proposed, and who refused him on the grounds that she was
already engaged to a Mr. Masefield, whom she did ultimately
marry, and lived and died at Wolverhampton. Nothing daunted
by his rejection, he now turned his thoughts on the daughter of
Hoggins with whom he boarded. Sarah Hoggins did not turn
a deaf ear to the suit of the mysterious lodger, whose tall and
striking figure had already won her admiration ; and on April 13,
1790, they were married by license at Bolas by the Rev. Cresswell
Tayleur, she being not quite seventeen and he thirty-six years of

143

" The Peasant Peeress "

age at the time. In the parish register he is inscribed as "John
Jones, bachelor." The witnesses were Sarah Adams and John
Picken, Sarah's uncle, who gave her away. It is to be hoped that
Mr. Cecil had not waded through the long paper he was obliged
to sign at Wellington before he could procure the license, which
stated that his name was John Jones, and that he was a yeoman and
a bachelor ! After the marriage he took his wife to a small house,
which he had built for himself on a piece of waste land near
Hodnet, and there they lived for about two years, during which
time he had her education completed. " Mr. Jones," as he was
now called, played the violin, burned wax candles, and used
plate, all of which showed he was something above the common
(Bolas !) ; and it is probable that Mr. Tayleur, the parson, with
whom he became very intimate, knew that he was a gentleman,
and for this reason asked him to be godfather to one of his chil-
dren. Possibly it was owing to the representation of the Rev.
Mr. Tayleur that "Mr. Jones" went through the ceremony of
marriage a second time with Sarah Hoggins on October 3, 1791.
Certainly it appears doubtful if the first was strictly legal, and
at the second, which took place at St. Mildred's Church, Bread
Street, London, the bridegroom gave his real name. This does
not preclude the idea that Sarah was still kept in ignorance of
her husband's status, as the name would convey nothing to
her rustic mind, and they returned to Hodnet, still as Mr. and
Mrs. John Jones, for which no doubt he gave her some good
reason.

On December 27, 1793, Mr. Cecil was informed that his
uncle was dead, and that consequently he had succeeded to the
Earldom of Exeter and was the owner of Burleigh, one of the
most magnificent places in the kingdom. Soon after he started
off with his young wife, and, judging by his past life at Hodnet,

144

K. (XisWAY, K.A., /"IllA

Sahah, Mahchionhss ()1-- I-.xkthk.
(' The Peasant Peeress.')

" The Peasant Peeress "

we may still cling to the belief that the journey was performed
in the romantic manner described by the poets/ and that not
until they arrived close up to the walls of Burleigh did the
new Lord Exeter disclose his identity to his gentle helpmeet,
or tell her that the splendid pile which met her astonished
gaze was to be her future home !

The rest of the Laureate's story must be relegated to the
limbo of fiction. The " Peasant Peeress " lived very happily
in her new station, and Lord Exeter continued to keep up
close relations with her people and his old friends at Hodnet.
He gave his little house on Bolas Common to his Tayleur
godchild, and one of his first acts after succeeding to the
earldom was to settle ^^'700 a year upon his wife's father,
and he also assisted her brothers to take up good positions
in the world. William Hoggins, the eldest, became a Captain
in the 92nd Regiment, but was unfortunately drowned in the
Aurora on the Goodwins in 1805. Thomas Hoggins was
Captain in the 89th Regiment, and James became the Rector
of Eltham and survived till 1805,

Her ladyship was anything but " drooping " and " fading," ^
being of a strong and robust temperament, and her premature
death at the early age of twenty-three was from natural causes,
fever attacking her eighteen days after the birth of her youngest
son, Lord Thomas Cecil. As " Mrs. John Jones " she had
had two children born at Bolas, a son Henry, who died an
infant, and a daughter Sophia, born in 1792, who married
in 1818 the Hon. Henry Manners Pierrepont of Conholt
Park, Hants, whose only child and heir married Lord Charles

1 Tennyson's " Lord Burleigh," and Thomas Moore's ballad, " You remember,
Ellen." Hazlitt also wrote on the subject.

* The miniature of her by Cosway is very pretty. Sir Thomas Lawrence also
painted her in a group, which picture is at Burleigh House.

145 K

" The Peasant Peeress "

Wellesley, brother of the Iron Duke and father of the
present fourth Duke of Wellington. After her accession to
the peerage Lady Exeter had two sons, Brownlow Cecil,
who succeeded his father as second Marquess of Exeter, and
the above-mentioned Lord Thomas Cecil, who married Lady
Sophia Lennox, daughter of the fourth Duke of Richmond,
which lady died in 1902, aged ninety-two. Lord Thomas,
as the writer remembers him, was a particularly aristocratic-
looking man, tall and very slight. He left no descendants.

Three years after the death of Sarah, Lady Exeter, Lord
Exeter married again, his third wife being Elizabeth, Dowager-
Duchess of Hamilton, the daughter-in-law of Elizabeth Gun-
ning, Duchess of Hamilton and Argyll. Lord Exeter died
in 1 804, leaving to her care — which proved a wise step — the
three children of the " Peasant Peeress."

146

TWO BRAVE GRIZELS: GRIZEL HUME
AND GRIZEL COCHRANE

I. GRIZEL HUME

" The young, the sweet, the good, the brave Griseld."

Joanna Baillie.

It is somewhat remarkable that two very young Scotch girls
of high degree, both bearing the same Christian name, born
within two years of each other, and the children of two great
friends, should have given such splendid instances of filial
devotion and courage as did respectively the daughters of
Sir Patrick Hume of Polwarth and Sir John Cochrane of
Ochiltree,^ N.B.

Commencing with Grizel "' Hume, she was one of eighteen
children, and was born at Redbraes Castle, N.B., on December
25, 1665. At this time the Scottish nation was suffering
much persecution on account of their conscientious scruples
respecting the existing forms of Church and State, and Sir
Patrick Hume, who was a strict Presbyterian, took a decided
part against the tyrannical administration of the Duke of
Lauderdale. For his opposition to the measures of the Govern-
ment he was imprisoned for four years, being ultimately
liberated by order of King Charles 11. This did not stop
Sir Patrick from continuing to engage in schemes with the

* A further coincidence is that both these Grizels lie buried within a few
miles of each other.

* Also spelt Grisell.

Two Brave Grizels

ultra-Protestant party to, at all events, prevent the Duke
of York's accession to the throne in the event of the King's
death, and shortly after his liberation he went to London
with Robert Baillie of Jerviswood,^ his Fidus Achates, and
Sir John Cochrane to concert an insurrection with Monmouth,
Sydney Lord Shaftesbury, and Lord Russell, the latter being
his relation. At this same time there was another plot going
on with which these patriots had no connection, and which, it
was said, had the object of assassinating King Charles on his
way back from Newmarket at a place called the Rye-House,
belonging to one of the conspirators, Richard Rumbold, a
fanatical republican. On the discovery of the Rye-House
Plot, Baillie of Jerviswood as well as several other Scotch
gentlemen were included in those arrested, and were sent to
Scotland to be tried. The promise of a pardon was held
out to him on condition of his giving the Government some
information. To this suggestion he replied, "They who can
make such a proposal to me, neither know me nor my country."
He was in consequence fined ;{^5000 and sent back to prison.
His friend, Sir Patrick Hume, was now most anxious to com-
municate with him concerning something of the greatest
importance ; but all available means failed, and he was in
despair. An idea then struck him that his clever and earnest
little daughter Grizel, who was still a child, might some-
how be able to manage to obtain admittance into the prison
unsuspected and slip a letter into Mr. Baillie's hand, and
this she actually did accomplish, going to Edinburgh by her-
self, and moreover she brought back useful intelligence.

Some time after this Sir Patrick had a narrow escape; a

^ Robert Baillie was great-grandson of John Knox, through the marriage of
his grandfather with one of the Reformer's daughters.

148

Robert Baillie of Jerviswood.

From " The Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen " (Blackie &f Son).

Two Brave Grizels

party of guards sent to arrest him stopped at the house of
a friend of the Government for refreshment, and there made
mquiries concerning the shortest way to Polwarth. The lady
of the house, who secretly favoured the Presbyterians, saw the
danger that threatened Sir Patrick and determined to warn him,
but she dared not write or send him any verbal message. She
therefore wrapt up a feather in a piece of paper and sent it over
the hills by a boy, whilst she detained the military party as long
as she could, entertaining them so royally that they were in no
hurry to depart. Sir Patrick on receiving the token at once
understood it was a hint to him to fly ; but instead of flying, he
settled in the first instance to burrow, until he could safely
escape abroad. Accordingly, without telling a soul except his
wife and Grizel and his carpenter, he established himself under-
ground in the family vault in Polwarth churchyard, a mile
from his house. The soldiers arrived and had a fruitless
search. After their departure the carpenter carried a bed and
bed-clothes during the night to the vault, and Sir Patrick
remained concealed a month in this dreary retreat, whilst the
search for him was continued in every direction. Grizel Hume,
Sir Patrick's daughter, had at this time a terror of the church-
yard at night, having been told by her old nurse so many bogey
stories of ghosts and apparitions ; but great love for her father
enabled her to overcome her fears, and every night at twelve
o'clock, no matter what the weather was, this courageous young
giri started ofi^ by herself, as Bishop Burnet says, " with a caution
above her years and a courage above her sex," carrying food and
drink for Sir Patrick, walking a mile on a lonely road, and
with very little light for fear of attracting attention.' She

1 The very small and exceeding rough lantern which she carried is now in the
Antiquarian Museum, Edinburgh,

149

Two Brave Grizels

always remained with her father in his gruesome resting-place,

surrounded by the coffins of his ancestors, until just before

daybreak, when she hastened back for fear of her absence being

discovered. The minister's house was near the church, and the

first night Grizel went to the vault the dog of the Manse

barked so furiously that she thought every moment some one

would come out and discover her. On discussing this difficulty

next morning with her mother. Lady Hume thought of the

following expedient. She sent for the minister, and under the

pretence that there was a mad dog in the neighbourhood, got

him to shoot his. After this Grizel went quietly to her father

every night.

" Thus night succeeding night her love
Did its unwearied nature prove."

They were both even able to be cheerful in this dismal abode,
and often laughed heartily. There vv^as great difficulty to get
food for Sir Patrick without rousing the suspicions of
the servants, whom they dared not confide in ; the only way
Grizel could manage was by taking it off her own plate at
dinner, and hiding it in her napkin. Her father was particu-
larly fond of that typical Scotch dish, sheep's head, and one
day, when this appeared for dinner, while the other children
were eating their broth, she had managed to convey the most
of one into her lap. Presently her brother Sandy looked up
with astonishment and said, " Mother, will ye look at Grizel ;
while we have been eating our broth, she has eat up the whole
sheep's head ! " Poor Grizel, whom her brother thought so
greedy, in reality scarcely ate any dinner during this month,
picking up what she could at other times, so that the deficiency
at the dinner-table might not be noticed.

It was too dark in the vault to read, but Sir Patrick

150

Two Brave Grizels

occupied himself in the daytime by repeating Buchanan's
Psalms/ which he knew by heart from beginning to end. At
the expiration of a month he thought he could not stand his
gloomy habitation any longer, more especially as, winter ap-
proaching, the cold would be too great ; so accordingly Lady
Hume and Grizel began to arrange a fresh hiding-place in his
own house of Redbraes. Grizel and the faithful carpenter set to
work every night to excavate the earth beneath the boards of
a room on the ground-floor. They scratched the soil up with
their hands so as not to make any noise, and Grizel worked so
hard that she had not a nail left upon any of her fingers. The
earth as they dug it up was placed by them in a sheet which
the man carried out on his back and emptied in the garden.
All this was a very arduous task, and rendered more so by the
necessity of absolute quietness ; but at last it was finished, and
the carpenter brought at night a large box which he had
constructed at his own house, and which was then fitted into the
excavation, and Sir Patrick's bed put into the box. Finally the
floor was replaced over the box with holes bored in it for air.
Grizel Hume, in her account of this affair, says that when the
arrangement was completed, she was so delighted that she felt
" the most happy creature alive." Sir Patrick then ventured
home in the dark, and lived there for two or three weeks, shut up
in this box during the day, and joining his wife and daughter at
night. But Grizel's satisfaction was doomed to disappointment.
One day when she lifted up the boards the bed bounced up to
the top, the box being full of water! In her life, she said,
she had never been "so struck" and had "near dropped
down." Her father then decided that he must somehow try to

• Psalmorum Davidis Poeiica, Georgii Buchanani, Glasguce. Robert!
Urie, 1750.

Two Brave Grizels

escape abroad ; this resolution being confirmed by hearing that

his dear friend, Baillie of Jerviswood, had been executed in

Edinburgh. Lady Hume and Grizel at once set to work to

make him a suit of clothes that would disguise him, and he left

home in two days ; only just in time, for a party of soldiers

came in search of him a few hours after his departure, and they

actually met his servant who was accompanying him, but who

purposely started on a different road. Sir John managed to get

to London through by-ways, passing as a surgeon and calling

himself " Dr. Wallace." He knew how to bleed, and carried

lancets with him. From London he went via France to

Flanders and Brabant, where he spent some weeks, and then to

Brussels to see the Duke of Monmouth ; but not finding him

there proceeded to The Hague, where he was received with great

respect by William, Prince of Orange. Soon after his arrival

the news came of the death of King Charles II., in consequence

of which fresh deliberations took place at The Hague as to the

course his party should take. The result was two military

expeditions ; one to England headed by Monmouth, and one to

Scotland headed by the Earl of Argyll. These ill-concerted

enterprises were complete failures, and both leaders lost their

heads. Sir Patrick Hume, who was second in command under

the Earl of Argyll, managed to escape, and concealed himself

for many weeks in the houses of friends. A large reward was

offered for his apprehension ; but a report of his death being

spread the search was relaxed, and he effected his escape in a

vessel from the west coast, going first to Ireland and then to

Bordeaux. Here he remained some months, and there are

several letters existing which he wrote to his wife and mother

from that town. The letters to his wife are curiously formal in

their commencement and ending considering the ardent expres-

152

Two Brave Grizels

sions of love contained in the body of the letters. For instance,
one which begins "Madam" and is finished "Your perpetually
obliged and faithful servant," says, "I was never more in love
with you, for absence, I can witness, encreases that passion : I
wish you all happiness and so much Constance as may in time
make me as happy as your good will can doe, which is the
sweetest wish I can conceive."

Sir Patrick still kept to his name of Dr. Peter Wallace, and
tried to make a living by his slight knowledge of surgery ; but
he writes, " the chirurgeons are too throng (sic) for me to gain
much in this place."

He ultimately moved to Geneva and from thence to Holland,
where he settled at Utrecht, and sent for his wife and ten
children. Sir Patrick's estates having been forfeited, they were
without any permanent means of support ; so Lady Hume and
Grizel went by sea to London to solicit the King for an allow-
ance for themselves and the children. They remained in London
some time and were much helped by kind friends and relations,
including the families of Lord Russell and Lord Wharton, but
all she could obtain was about £1^*^ a year. When they
returned to Scotland they found one of the children so ill that
she could not go with them to Holland, and again we find the
wonderful energy and resource of the brave Grizel coming to
the fore. Having gone over with the rest of the family to
Holland, she returned to Scotland by herself to fetch her sick
sister. They had a terrible voyage to Brill, and from there they
set out on foot for Rotterdam on a cold, wet, dirty night ; the
sick child, who could not walk very well, soon lost her shoes in
the mud, and Grizel carried her the rest of the way on her back.
A gentleman whom they had met on the ship, and who was also
a refugee, took their baggage for them, which included a " clog-

^S3

Two Brave Grizels

bag " of books which Grizel was taking for her father. At
Rotterdam they were met by Sir Patrick and their eldest brother,
who conveyed them on to Utrecht, where the family were settled.
Here they lived for three years and a half, during which time
"Dr. Wallace" never stirred out for fear of being discovered,
though he saw many friends at home. His house was always full
of unfortunate exiles ; they seldom dined without three or four
friends joining them, and Grizel used to say in after years she
thought it little less than a miracle how father and mother and
their ten children lived and entertained their friends on their small
pittance. The professors and men of learning in Utrecht came
often to see " Dr. Wallace," and they were always given a glass
of " Allerbest " beer. Altogether at this time they led a happy,
contented life, and their spirits were never affected by little
reverses. Sometimes their small remittances from Scotland were
delayed ; then they put the little plate they had with them in the
" Lamber," i.e. pawnshop, till the ships arrived. It was the
custom at Utrecht to collect money for the poor from house to
house, a bell being rung to warn people to get their coin ready.
One night the bell was heard, but there was no money in the
house excepting one " orkey " or "doit," the smallest of all
coins. Every one was so ashamed that no one would go to the
door to give it, till at last Sir Patrick said, " Well, then, I'll go
with it ; we can do no more than give all we have." They
could not afford to keep any regular servant, and only had a
little girl to wash the dishes. Grizel did most of the work ;
went to market, cleaned the house, cooked the dinner, mended
the children's clothes. When she had a moment to spare
she had a lesson in French and Dutch and amused herself with
music, Sir Patrick having bought a " rucar " or harpsichord.
Amongst their exiled friends with confiscated estates was young

154

Two Brave Grizels

George Baillie of Jerviswood, the son of Sir Patrick's dear friend,
who had been executed. He was in prison with his father
when Grizel Hume went as a very young girl, almost a child, to
give him her father's letter, and from that time dated a friend-
ship which soon ripened into the warmest love. They saw a
great deal of each other at Utrecht, but as neither of them had
a farthing no actual engagement could take place ; but her
parents had such a high sense of his honour that they trusted
her to go about everywhere with him. Grizel at this time
had two offers of marriage from men of fortune and character,
neighbours of their former home in Scotland, but she rejected
both. They continued her friends to the day of their death,
and often said to her she had made a better choice. At last
the Revolution brought a great change in their fortunes. When
the Prince of Orange went over to England he took with him
Sir Patrick Hume and his son, as well as George Baillie; and
when all was settled in England, Lady Hume and Grizel went
over with the Princess, the younger Hume children being sent
to Scotland. Grizel was now offered the post of Maid-of-
honour to Queen Mary, but declined it. Sir Patrick's forfeiture
was rescinded, and he was put in possession of his estate, and
honours were thickly showered on him. He was first created
a peer of Scotland by the title of Lord Polwarth, and later on
Earl of Marchmont. He was made High Chancellor of Scotland,
and then the King's High Commissioner to the Parliament. He
had successions of Government appointments, always keeping
up his character of strict probity accompanied by deep religion,
which were the leading characteristics of his life. He was one
of the most influential promoters of the Union ; and after a long
life spent in the service of his country, he died at Berwick in
1724, aged eighty-three. As his grandson. Lord Binning, was

Two Brave Grizels

sitting by his bedside not many hours before he expired, he saw
him smiling, and said, "My lord, what are you laughing at?"
Lord Marchmont answered, " I am diverted to think what a
disappointment the worms will meet with when they come to
me expecting a good meal, and find nothing but bones ! " —
alluding to his excessive thinness.

At the same time as Sir Patrick Hume had been reinstated
in his estates, young George Baillie received back his also, which
had been bestowed on the Duke of Gordon. This enabled him
to marry our heroine, Grizel Hume, a marriage which gave her
all the happiness she deserved.

The following is a description of Lady Grizel Baillie by
one who knew her well : " Her actions show what her mind was,
and her outward appearance was no less remarkable ; she was
well made, very handsome, with a life and sweetness in her eyes
very uncommon, and great delicacy in all her features; her hair
was chestnut, and to her last she had the finest complexion with
the clearest red in her cheeks and lips that could be seen in one
of fifteen." She often said that during the forty-eight years of
her married life she never had the shadow of a quarrel or
misunderstanding with her husband, whom she survived twenty-
two years, dying in 1746, aged eighty-one.

Lady Hervey (the celebrated Molly Lepel) in writing of her
says : " I saw old Lady Grizel Baillie six months before she died
as lively, as entertaining, as sagacious, and with all her senses
perfect as ever."

Lady Grizel had no son, but two daughters, Grizel and
Rachel ; the latter married Charles Lord Binning, son of
Thomas, sixth Earl of Haddington. Grizel Baillie, the eldest,
was a most charming character, and combined uncommon
beauty and fascinating manners with sprightly conversation

.56

Two Brave Grizels

and cultivated talents. She married Mr. (afterwards Sir) Alex-
ander Murray, Bart., of Stanhope,^ when she was only seven-
teen years of age. This turned out an exceedingly unfortunate
marriage. Mr. Murray had a very pleasing exterior and a
prepossessing manner, but was evidently not of sane mind.
On the first day after their marriage he behaved in such an
extraordinary manner as to seriously alarm his newly-made wife
as well as her family. Under his pleasing exterior there lurked
a dark, moody, and ferocious temper, and groundless suspicions
and insane jealousies made him the victim of uncontrollable
passion. After undergoing a most trying time for four years
his wife procured a deed of separation, and took up her residence
with her father in London, where she became distinguished as one
of the remarkable women who graced what has been called the
Augustan age of the Court of England. In Gay's well-known
verses, " Mr, Pope's Welcome from Greece," Grizel Murray is
honoured with a place amongst the group of " goodly dames"
who advance to hail the return of the poet — " the sweet-toned
Murray," as Gay calls her, is mentioned just before her great
friend, Molly Lepel. The latter loved her dearly, and when
Grizel died in 1759 wrote about her as follows : "She is to me
an irreparable loss ; never in my long life did I ever meet
with a creature in all respects like her : many have excelled her
perhaps in particular qualities, but none that ever I met with
have equalled her in all. Sound good sense, strong judgment,
great sagacity, strict honour, truth, and sincerity ; a most affec-
tionate disposition or mind, constant and steady, not obstinate,
great indulgence to others, a most sweet, cheerful temper and

^ Mr. Murray was the son and heir of Sir David Murray, Bart., by his wife, Lady
Anne Bruce, daughter of Alexander, second Earl of Kincardine, by \'eronica de
Corneille \'an Arson \'. Sommelsdyck. His sister, Janet Murray, married Lord
Charles Kerr, and their son, Robert Kerr, wasgreat-great-grandfather of the writer.

Two Brave Grizels

a sort of liveliness and good humour that promoted innocent
mirth wherever she came, nor did she ever say or do a thing that
could hurt or offend any one. In forty years and as much as
we lived together, she never said or did the least thing to me
that from any reason in the world I could have wished undone
or unsaid. . . . Oh ! she was — what was she not ? — but 'tis all
over "

II. GRIZEL COCHRANE

Amongst the distinguished Scotsmen who signalised them-
selves by their opposition to the English Government after the
Restoration was Sir John Cochrane of Ochiltree, second son
of the first Earl of Dundonald. He was a Patriot, rivalling
his friend, Sir Patrick Hume, in talent and purity of motives, and
also, like him, destined to experience the devotedness of a
daughter's love. Sir John was one of those who, in 1685,
pledged themselves to assist the Earl of Argyll's rising in Scot-
land, and on the failure of this enterprise he was captured and
taken to Edinburgh, and ultimately condemned to death, in
spite of the most strenuous exertions of his aged father, the
Earl of Dundonald.

After his condemnation. Sir John was told that he might see

any of his family. So afraid, however, was he of his sons being

implicated in his misfortunes, that he sent them a message to

entreat them not to come to him till the eve of his execution.

Late in the evening, after he had made this sacrifice, he was

sitting in his prison with bowed head, which he did not raise

when he heard the door open, feeling that it could only be his

particularly repellent gaoler. His surprise was great when he

felt soft arms round his neck and saw it was Grizel, his only

daughter. She told him that her grandfather, the old Earl, had

158

Two Brave Grizels

made a fresh appeal to the King and one to Father Petre, his
Majesty's confessor, who was said to influence him greatly ; but
all this would take some time, and meanwhile the warrant for
his execution was daily expected. Several days elapsed during
which time Grizel Cochrane was constantly with Sir John, and
in an agony of mind lest the warrant should arrive. At last
she determined on a desperate step to save her father. She
began by telling him that urgent business would prevent her
coming to him for some days. Sir John, hearing this, was afraid
she proposed going to London to further his appeal, and warned
her to be careful.

" Did you but know the characters of those you must
encounter, you would fear, as I do, the sullying of your fair
fame."

" I am a Cochrane, my father," said this beautiful maiden of
eighteen years, and she embraced her father and departed.

The next day, at early daybreak, Grizel Cochrane, who was
a first-rate horsewoman, was on her steed and already many
miles on the road to the Border. She had put on the dress of
a waiting-woman, and pretended she was on a borrowed hack
and going to her mother a long way ofF. She only rested at
out-of-the-way cottages, and on the second day after leaving
Edinburgh she reached the home of her old nurse, who lived
four miles on the English side of Berwick. In this fond and
faithful servant Grizel knew she had a friend whom she could
thoroughly trust, and to her, therefore, she confided her won-
derful idea — namely, her determination to make a desperate
venture to save her father's life by acting as a highwayman and
stopping the mounted postman, and forcing him to deliver up
his bags, in which she expected to find the fatal warrant. This
was a most extraordinary resolution for a delicately-nurtured

159

Two Brave Grizels

girl of eighteen, especially as she knew that the bearer of his
Majesty's mails would not only be well mounted, but also well
furnished with firearms, which it would be his duty to use in
defence of his post-bags. But to make the attempt at the great
risk of her life she was fully determined. She borrowed from
her nurse the clothes of her foster-brother, a slim youth, cut
off a considerable portion of her hair to further her disguise,
and armed herself with a brace of small pistols.

The mail from London in those days took eight days to
reach Edinburgh, and thus Grizel concluded that if only she
could get hold of the warrant for her father's execution, it
would give him a respite of at least sixteen or seventeen days, by
which time there was some reasonable hope that his sentence
might be rescinded. She had ascertained the exact route of the
postmen, and the places where they rested. The mails changed
hands at Durham, and she had found out that the postman who
received them there always stopped for a few hours' rest at a
small public-house just outside the little town of Belford, where
he generally arrived about six o'clock in the morning. At 7 a.m.
Grizel in her disguise came to this inn, and having put up her
horse, she went in to the travellers' room and asked for refresh-
ments.

"Sit down at the end of that table," said the old woman,
" for the best I have to give you is thine already, and be
pleased, my bonny man, to make as little noise as you can, for
there's one asleep in that bed that I like ill to disturb."

Grizel said she would be very quiet, and then, at once taking
the scene in, racked her quick brain for a device to get rid of
the old dame for a short time.

"Is the well you get your water from near.''" said she.

" It's a good bit off," said the woman.

160

Two Brave Grizels

" The water on this table," said Grizel, " is quite warm,
and I want a good drink. If you'll fetch me some fresh from
the well, I'll consider it in the reckoning."

Accordingly the old dame trotted off, saying, " I cannot
refuse such a civil, discreet lad." No sooner had the door
closed on her than Grizel hurried, though very cautiously, to the
end of the room, where the postman was reposing in one of
those closed, wooden bedsteads then in common use amongst
the lower orders ; the door was left half-open to let in air. Grizel
quietly opened it a little more, hoping to see the mail-bags
by the side of the man, but, alas, his whole head and broad
shoulders were on it, and there was not the slightest chance of
any one being able to touch it without awakening him. Again
half-closing the door of the bed, she quickly made for the man's
holsters, which he had placed upon the table, and opening them
she found his loaded pistols, which she at once unloaded ; this
done she had barely re-seated herself at the table when the old
woman entered with the fresh water from the well. Having
taken a good draught of it, Grizel then paid her account, paying
for the water as if she had had beer, and, having carelessly
ascertained in the course of conversation how much longer the
sleeping guest was likely to remain, she left the Inn, mounted
her horse, and set off at a trot. Making a circuit of two or
three miles she once more got into the high-road between
Belford and Berwick, where she walked her horse gently on,
awaiting the coming of the postman. As she did so the
thought came into her mind that he would possibly examine his
pistols before starting, and, finding they had been tampered
with, re-load them and be doubly on his guard, in which case
it was more than likely her life would be forfeited for nothing.
But this did not daunt her courage or deprive her of her self-

i6i L

Two Brave Grizels

possession. With a natural and easy manner, Grizel accosted
him as he advanced behind her, and continued to ride on some
way by his side. She saw that he had two mail-bags strapped
firmly to his saddle in front close to the holsters. One bag
contained the letters from London, and the others those picked
up en route. When they were nearly half-way between Belford
and Berwick she thought it time to commence her operations.
She therefore got closer to him and said, " Friend, I have
taken a fancy to those mail-bags of yours, and I must have
them ; therefore take my advice and deliver them up quietly, for
I am provided against all emergencies. I am mounted, as you
see, on a very fleet horse ; I carry firearms ; moreover, I am
allied with those stronger though not bolder than myself."
And as she said this she pointed to a wood close by, meaning
him to think she had confederates at hand.

Such language coming from a mere stripling amazed the
man so much that at first he treated it as a joke. " If," said
he, " my young Master, you mean to make merry at my ex-
pense, you are welcome. I am no sour churl to take offence at
the idle words of a foolish boy; but if," he said, taking one of
the pistols from the holster and turning its muzzle towards her,
" you are mad enough to think seriously of such a matter, I am
ready for you. But methinks, my lad, you seem at an age when
robbing a garden or an old woman's fruit-stall would be more
in your line than taking his Majesty's mails from a stout man
like me."

*' Nay," said his young antagonist, " I am not fond of blood-
shed, but that mail I must and will have, so now choose," and
she drew one of the small pistols she had concealed and delibe-
rately cocking it presented it in his face.

" Then your blood be on your head ! " said the postman,

162

Two Brave Grizels

raising his hand and firing off his own pistol, which, however,

only flashed in the pan. Dashing the weapon to the ground,

he lost not a moment in pulling out the other, which he also

aimed at the stripling and fired with the same result. The

man, furious, now jumped from his horse and made an attempt

to seize her, but by an adroit use of her spurs she managed

to elude his grasp and got out of his reach. Whilst this was

going on, the postman's horse had moved on a few paces, and

Grizel, taking advantage of this opportunity, dashed forwards,

caught the bridle, and put both horses at a hard gallop. The

postman, who probably believed that she had confederates hiding

in the wood, took to his heels and made his way back to

Belford. Grizel meanwhile, as soon as she saw his retreating

form disappear, tied up his horse to a tree in the wood, and at

once cut the straps of the mail-bag with a sharp knife, which

she had about her expressly for that purpose. She soon got at

the contents, and seized upon the Government despatches to the

Council in Edinburgh. Here she found the fatal warrant for

her father's execution as well as many other sentences. She tore

all into small bits and hid them about her, leaving the private

papers to be found afterwards. She then remounted her own

horse and hastily rode away back to her nurse, where she burnt

the pieces and put on her female garments, leaving the pistols

to be concealed. She continued her journey back to Edinburgh

as fast as she could, resting very little, and that only in secluded

places.

Grizel Cochrane's daring action was crowned with success ;

it gave the necessary time for Sir John's pardon to be procured,

which, it is said, was effected by a bribe of ;^5000 to Father

Petre from Lord Dundonald. Sir John was sent to London,

where he had an interview with the King, the result of their

163

Two Brave Grizels

conversation furnishing a plausible pretence for the exercise of
the Royal mercy.

At the Revolution in 1689 Sir John's forfeiture was re-
scinded, and a few years later he was made one of the Farmers
of the Poll Tax. His descendants are very numerous. By his
wife, Margaret, daughter of William Strickland of Boynton, he
had, besides Grizel our heroine, who married John Ker of
Morristoun, two sons ; the second son, John, was the father of
no less than eight sons and seven daughters, and William, the
eldest, had nine sons, one of whom became the eighth Earl of
Dundonald. He married his first cousin, Elizabeth Ker,
daughter of James Ker of Morristoun, great-granddaughter of
our heroine, and from them are descended the present Earl of
Dundonald.

164

A HUGUENOT FAMILY

" Que Dieu se montre seulement."

— Huguenot Hy»in,

Among the many annals which are left us of the staunchness
and courage of Huguenot families in holding fast to their faith
through the cruellest persecutions, there are few which demon-
strate more strongly the strength of character and high sense
of honour, appearing in successive generations, than the story of
the de Pechels, a family who suffered much for their religion
during the terrible " Dragonnades."

In the reign of Francois I., Luther laid the foundation of
the Reformed Church in France, and, later on, the Protestants
of the south, from their proximity to Geneva, where the zeal
of Calvin produced such an extraordinary effect, had generally
adopted the tenets of the latter Reformer. Nowhere was the
new religion embraced with more ardour than in Montauban,
the chief town of the department of Tarn-et-Garonne in
Languedoc, which became one of the principal strongholds of
the French Protestants, or Huguenots, as they were afterwards
called.

Amongst the families of chief importance living at this time
in the neighbourhood of Montauban were the de Pechels de la
Buissonade,^ who declared themselves in favour of the Reformed
Church, and, as we shall see, allowed no amount of persecution

^ This place-name is found written in a variety of ways, the most general being
either La Buissonade or La Boyssonade.

165

A Huguenot Family

to induce them ever to abandon it. The name was well known
in Montauban from a very early date, though the spelling was
not always the same. In the thirteenth century we find the
name of Peyre (Pierre) Despesels, Consul there in 1254 and in
1267, and again the name appears as Consul in 1294. Ob-
viously ancestors of the Pierre Peschels/ born at Montauban in
1500, who we know, from original documents now in the
Herald's Office in London, was the progenitor of the present
family of " Pechell," and whose son held the same post there
in 1575.

The de Pechels had a house in the town of Montauban,
which still exists; it is in the Rue St. Louis, and belongs to
Mr. Portal, banker. They had also a chateau a few miles away,
near St. Etienne-de-Talmont, called La Buissonnade, which is
now only a farmhouse.

All we know of Pierre Peschels or de Pechels, with whom
we may say the history of the family of the Pechells com-
mences, took place in the year 1547, on the accession of
Henri II. Thus we find the Sieur de la Boyssonade was
ennobled by this French King as Baron de St. Cran-Barre,^
the patent being dated April 8, 1547, and at the same time
"Livres de Doctorat" were granted to him. Then he married
Louise de Fumel, said to be of a great family near Bordeaux,
and on the i8th June we find him producing a certificate
in order to be exonerated from the National burdens (from
which only the noblesse were exempt), and to secure himself

* The name is also found as " Pechelz," and the coincidence of the old arms
being almost identical with those of the family of Peche, well-known in the Middle
Ages, gave rise to a theory that the founder of the family of the de Pechels
might have gone out to Aquitaine from England with the Black Prince, who was
Lord of Languedoc and held a court there.

* St. Cran-Barre is now Saint Caprais.

166

A Huguenot Family

and family from those requisitions to which every subject
of inferior rank was exposed. Pierre de Pechels was pre-
sumably a Catholic, as, even if he had escaped the terrible
massacres of the last days of Francois 1., he would not have
been ennobled by Henri II., who was vehemently opposed
to the Calvinists and issued Edicts declaring the pain of
death to all those found secretly practising the rites of their
religion, the Edict of Chateaubriand, which condemned all
heretics to be burned alive, being passed this same year. In
all probability his son Jean Orace de Pechels was the first
of the family who confirmed to the Reformed religion. In
1579 he married Isabeau de Prevost, who was of an old
Perigord family, which became well known as staunch sup-
porters of the new religion, and, moreover, he called his eldest
son Samuel, which has more of a Calvinistic flavour than his own
name. The fact of his being of the Reformed religion would
not have precluded him from being " Conseiller a la Chambre
de I'Etat," which post, as well as some others, he held in 1575,
as Henri III. made great concessions to the Protestants. Not
only did he allow them the free exercise of their religion,
but he even instituted in every Parliament '' une chambre
mi-partie," composed of Calvinists and Protestants. Jean
Orace was also Premier Consul of Montauban in 1600 and
161 1. Samuel de Pechels, son of Jean Orace, was born in
1580, and married in 161 7 Rachel de la Valette, of a noble
family in Guienne. In 1623 he was plunged into the horrors
of Civil War. Montauban was besieged, and 8000 men, in-
cluding his brother, perished without it being taken. Cathala
Coture in his Histoire de Querci tells us how " Labouis-
sonade " (as Samuel was called),^ " un homme sage et ferme,"

^ Elsewhere he is called " de Pechels La Buissonade."
167

A Huguenot Family

commanded the centre of the troops. Although the Due de
Rohan was at the time the chief leader of the Calvinists, de
Pechels would not lend himself to the Duke's ambitious
projects and remained firm in his loyalty to Louis XIII. At
a General Assembly, held in the Hotel de Ville at Montauban
on the 1 2th October 1627, a resolution was carried by him,
then "Premier Consul," opposing de Rohan, pledging allegi-
ance to the King, and declaring detestation of the arms of
England. De Rohan seems to have avenged himself on de
Pechels by authorising several raids in the country when the
house and farms of Le Buissonade were pillaged.

Samuel de Pechels and Rachel his wife had three sons :
the two youngest were Yzac and Pierre, of whom we know
nothing; the eldest was another Jean Grace, born in 1620,
who, like his father before him, was " Conseiller du Roi " and
Premier Consul at Montauban during several years. His
portrait, painted in 1650, and said to be by Mignard, represents
him as a very dark young man with large
black eyes and very marked eyebrows. He
wears a long flowing wig, below his shoulders,
U^'f''\)^ iU'%\)) ^^'^ carries in his right hand what may be a
L^ii^^§4^ wand of office. The interest of this picture
is increased by the fact that it has em-
blazoned on it the old French arms of the
de Pechels, namely, " Or, four eagles dis-
played, sable." The picture was formerly
in the Hotel de Ville at Montauban, but was brought over
to England at the close of the eighteenth century by M.
de Saint Sardos, Marquis de Mondenard (a descendant of Jean

* Jean Grace, called after his grandfather, who was his god-father; his god-
mother was Mile. Madonne de Valette.

168

Or, four Eagles dis-
played, Sable.

J HAN OkACE DE PeCHELS.
From a Dra'wiiig after the Picture by Pierre Mignard.

A Huguenot Family

Orace), who presented it to Sir Thomas Brooke-Pechell,
second Bart., then the English representative of the family.
This picture is now at Castle Goring in Sussex, in the
possession of a relation in the female line, Lady Somerset,
and the late Mrs. Mark Pechell had a copy of it. Jean
Orace de Pechels married in 1643 Jeanne de la Lauze,
daughter of Hierosme de la Lauze, Conseiller au Parlement,
whose family is very honourably mentioned in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries.

Soon after the accession of Louis XIV, the persecutions
of the Huguenots were renewed and continued, notwithstanding
all the efforts made in their favour by the liberal-minded
Colbert. The de Pechels seem, however, at first to have had
some exemptions. Amongst the family archives are an " ordi-
nance," dated 1661, exempting Jean Orace from having soldiers
billeted on him, and another "Ordinance de relaxe " in 1666.
This same year, however, the Queen-mother Anne of Austria
died, her last request being that her son should exterminate
all heresy in his kingdom, and accordingly the severest and
most barbarously cruel means were taken for the forced " con-
version " or extirpation of the Huguenots. Those of Montau-
ban were amongst the most obstinate of all ; they refused to
be converted by the priests, and the King then determined
to bring into use his " missionaires bottes," as he jocularly
called his Dragoons. This was the commencement of the
horrible " Dragonnades." Noailles wrote to the King that
he promised that before the next 25th of November (1683)
there would be no more Huguenots in Languedoc, and two
years later Louvois, in reporting his operations, said that
" twenty thousand * conversions ' had been made in the dis-
trict of Montauban alone."

169

A Huguenot Family

Amongst those who stoutly refused conversion at any cost
were Samuel de Pechels and his brother Jerome de Pechels, sons
of the last-mentioned Jean Horace. Jerome fled to Holland
and went on to Berlin, where he became Chaplain to the
regiment of Mousquetaires, commanded by the Due de
Schomberg.^ Samuel, who was born in 1644 and had married
in 1677 Mademoiselle Marquise Thierry de Sabonieres,- has
left us in manuscript his own description of the terrible perse-
cutions he and his family went through. The following is an
abridged and translated account taken from it. The original,
which is in French, is at Castle Goring.

"On the 20th of August 1685 the troops entered Mon-
tauban, and were quartered upon such of the inhabitants as were
of the Protestant faith. This was done with much tumult and
disorder ; officers and soldiers vied with each other in committing
acts of violence, with the full sanction of the magistrate, who
authorised the greatest excesses. All persons of the Reformed
Religion, without distinction of age, sex, or condition, were cruelly
oppressed by threats, blows and spoliation. . . . Upon the
twenty-sixth day of that month my house was rifled with such
barbarous zeal and cruelty that in a few days I was almost
stripped of the property which God had given me, and I was
thrust out into the street, with my wife, who was close to her
confinement, and four very small children, taking nothing with
me but a little cradle and a small supply of linen for the babe,
who was almost momentarily expected. As we left we were
pitilessly drenched by the troopers, who amused themselves at
the window with emptying pitchers of water upon our heads.

' It is not unlikely that his descendants still exist in Germany, and there
is or was of late years a scientific writer, Oscar Peschel, who published his works
at Leipzic.

* Madame Samuel de Pechels wa5 a daughter of Jacob de Thierry-Saboni^res,
by his wife Anne de Caila, and was born in 1655.

170

A Huguenot Family

I tried to complain to the Marechal de Boufflers, the General in
command at Montauban, but was given to understand that it
would be continued unless I changed my religion. That, I said,
by God's help, I would never do. For a long time we were
wandering through the streets, no one daring to offer us an
asylum, as the Ordinance imposed a fine of 400 or 500 livres
upon any who should receive Protestants, ... In this lament-
able plight the good Providence led us to the house of Madame
de Guarrison, my wife's sister, and hardly had my wife accepted
the bed she offered her than she was happily delivered of a
daughter; but that same evening a great many soldiers took
up their quarters in Madame de Guarrison's house, and con-
ducted themselves with a degree of violence scarcely to be
described. . . . They took possession of all the rooms, and
obliged the poor sick woman, my wife, to get up. She crept
into the courtyard, where with the new-born infant she was
detained in the cold for a long time. At length she got into the
street, but was followed by soldiers, who had orders never to
lose sight of her, in order that any persons with whom she
found a refuge might be made to pay the penalty. The good
Samaritan appeared in the form of a Catholic lady. Mademoiselle
de Lad a, who, being the mistress of Monsieur Berchere, the
Governor of Montauban, was able to get permission from him
to shelter my wife and her babe. This kind-hearted woman
sent her to a pleasure-garden not far from the town, whither
she had a bed conveyed, and four other persons accom-
panied Madame de Pechels. During her stay here Madame de
Pechels learnt that her husband, who had been imprisoned at
Cahors, was about to be removed to Marseilles, and that he
with other prisoners would pass not far from Montauban.
She therefore went and waited by the high-road, and when
they came up she obtained from the guard who was con-
ducting them permission to converse with him and they prayed
together."

171

A Huguenot Family

Meanwhile, to continue M. de Pechels' account in his own
words, he says : —

" All my effects were sold or dispersed, including my library,
which was considerable, and all my papers. My farms were wasted
and my cattle sold by public auction in the square. The entire
dispersion of our property did not end our persecution, which
now fell on ourselves and our unfortunate family. Up to this
time we had dwelt together within the walls of Montauban ;
now we were soon scattered abroad. On the 14th January 1686
Monsieur Mabasson, the Consul, came into a house where some
of us had taken refuge and carried off my youngest sister,
dragging her with great violence to the Convent of St. Claire.
My dear mother was also conveyed there at the same time, and
the next day my sister Derassus was committed to prison. My
children were all taken from their mother, even the young
infant, and it was intended to commit my wife to prison, but
she managed to conceal herself for six months in the house of
a poor weaver who was devoted to the de Pechels family. All
day long his work was carried on in the only room which he
possessed, and Madame de Pechels passed the day in a recess
concealed by his bed ; in the evening she came out, and the
good people supplied her with what was necessary. Six months
were passed in this retreat without any one knowing what had
become of her. Her persecutors thought that she was safe in
some foreign land. It then became easier for her to find an
opportunity to escape. After many troubles and dangers she
arrived at Geneva, where regret at being separated from her
children detracted much from the satisfaction she otherwise
felt at her escape from persecution. She offered to the guide
who had conducted her what money she had left if he could
bring her one of them, and suggested the eldest girl Suzanne,
then nine or ten years of age, but the latter refused to go. She
and her sister Anne remained in the convent where they had
been taken and conformed to the Catholic reliorion, in conse-

172

A Huguenot Family

quence of which the family estates were settled on them, and
they both married. Suzanne became the wife of Monsieur
Andre de Saint-Sardos of Castel-Sarrasin, whose descendants
still live there. One of them, the Marquis de Saint-Sardos,
spent some time in England in 1777, when he became 'very
intimate with his English relations. He afterwards married
the heiress of the family of Mondenard, and assumed that
name in addition to his own. Anne de Pechels in} 1697
married Messire Louis de Cahuzac, avocat en la cour des aides ;
their son also, Louis de Cahuzac, was a well-known dramatic
writer much in vogue in Paris in the eighteenth century."

The infant born in the midst of such terrible troubles died
soon after it was deprived of its mother's care. There remained
Jacob, the boy of seven, and he earnestly entreated to be taken
to his mother. And accordingly the guide managed to convey
him, by travelling only at night, to Geneva, where Madame de
Pechels was maintaining herself by her work and waiting for
intelligence respecting her husband, whose further accounts of
his vicissitudes we will now continue in his own words : —

" I was taken from the prison at Montauban to Cahors, where
I was put into the lowest dungeon. I was then transferred to
the citadel of Montpellier, and shut up with many others in a
miserably small cell. After that I was conducted to Aigues-
Mortes, and there locked up with thirty male prisoners and
twenty women and girls, who had also been brought thither tied
two-and-two together. From Aigues-Mortes we sailed to
Marseilles, where 230 of us were put into a single compartment
in the Chamber of Darkness. We were then shipped with many
others for America. The misery we were in during our voyage
was great ; I knovv' not how to find terms strong enough
adequately to represent it. The space between decks in our
ship was divided into five compartments. At the poop was the
captain's and other officers' rooms ; the next was used by the

173

A Huguenot Family-
soldiers and sailors who guarded usj; the third was for our
prisoners ; then came that appropriated to the use of seventy sick
felons, Turks and Christians chained with heavy irons. These
unhappy men were despatched to America to be sold as slaves.
The compartment in which I was was so small that twenty
persons could scarcely move in it, and we were fifty-nine, heaped
upon each other without power to stand upright, the ceiling
being so low, or to lie down and stretch ourselves full length except
one upon another. This sorry den, moreover, was very dark,
admitting no daylight save through the hole by which we were
obliged to enter, and even this was often closed. The crowded
state of the room, the burning heat of the sun, the never-ceasing
fire of the kitchen next door, the pestilential filthiness which
prevailed among us, and the proximity of the galley-slaves,
who were in the same state as we were, devoured by swarms of
vermin which covered us day and night, tormented by excessive
thirst impossible to allay except by a few drops of foetid water,
the miserable diet distributed amongst us, all occasioned
grievous diseases to most of the prisoners during the whole
voyage, which lasted five months ! All this misery sufficed not
to satisfy our overseers, and they sometimes struck us and very
often threw down sea-water upon us from above when they saw
us engaged in prayer. When we reached St. Domingo the galley-
slaves were disembarked and sold on the spot, as well as some
sick persons of our own party. I and two ladies, Madame de
Raisin and Madame de Fouquet, were taken on to the little
island of Vacca, from whence after two months I managed to
escape, and made my way to the English island of Jamaica in
a little shallop of that generous nation which in its course
stopped at Vacca to water. Arrived at Jamaica I was seized
with violent illness accompanied by delirium. This left me quite
prostrate, but ultimately I was able to embark in a vessel for
London, which I reached on the 24th December. There I
expected to meet my wife, some of my children, and my mother

174

A Huguenot Family

and sisters ; but, alas ! instead of finding these great sources of
consolation, I learnt that the first was still at Geneva with one
of our boys, that the youngest had died, that my daughters
were unhappily well at Montauban, the eldest in the convent.
My mother and youngest sister both in prison. From the 24th
December 1688, I remained in London till the loth August of
the following year, when the Duke of Schomberg's Huguenot
Regiment of Cavalry left for Ireland, and I accompanied it with
the rank of lieutenant/ Four days after my departure my
beloved wife and son, from whom I had been separated for four
years, arrived in London from Geneva. Their surprise was
great at not finding me there, and my regret not less when
informed of their arrival that I had not deferred my journey
for a few days. We embarked for Ireland on the 25th of
August and landed between Carrickfergus and Belfast, two
small towns of that country. Next day the Duke, our General,
moved us in pursuit of the enemy, who were commanded by the
Duke of Berwick."

Samuel de Pechels, after describing the operations of King
William's army, says that his regiment remained stationary at
Dundalk for some time, where provisions were short and the
weather cold and rainy. In consequence disease soon made
its appearance, carrying off the men by hundreds. Ague,
dysentery, and fever raged, and de Pechels fell ill and was unable
to pursue the campaign further. After remaining for some
weeks at Lurgan to recruit his health, he obtained leave from
the Duke of Schomberg to return to London, where, after the
lapse of four years, he found his beloved wife. The fighting in
Ireland continued during the following year, 1690, but de Pechels

^ How little did Samuel de Pechels think, when he joined the Duke of
Schomberg's regiment, that one of his descendants would marry a descendant of
his General ; yet such was the case some years after, when Lady Caroline Kerr
married Horace Pechell.

^75

A Huguenot Family

remained invalided and was unable to rejoin the army of King
William. He finished his narrative thus : —

"We reached London, thank God ! on the 4th January 1690.
After some stay there it was the King's pleasure to exempt from
further service certain officers specified by name and to assign
them a pension ; through a kind Providence I was included in
that number. I lived in London for two years and a half, and
then in 1692 left, in company with my wife and son, to remove
into Ireland, whither my pension was transferred."

This pension was only 2s. 6d. a day, but the de Pechels' means
of support were angmented by donations from their daughters
in France. Samuel de Pechels was now only forty-eight years of
age and his wife thirty-seven, and they lived on for forty years,
both dying in 1732. We know little of their life in Ireland,
but with their tiny means it must necessarily have been a very
quiet and uneventful one. Their names appear repeatedly in the
Registers of the French churches at Dublin as sponsors, witnesses
to marriages, and attendants at funerals.^

Samuel was eighty-eight when he died ; his wife survived
him some months, and she continued to receive the pension that
had been granted to him, which was regranted to her by Queen
Anne. They were buried together at St. Anne's Church, Dublin.

Samuel de Pechels lived to see his son Jacob make an
honourable career and become the happy father of a family. As
we have seen, he chose to follow the fortunes of his parents and
submit to their trials rather than give up his religion. He
arrived in Dublin with them in 1692, and shared their poverty
till he was eighteen, when he joined the Regiment of Cromstron
as Ensign and went to Holland. In 1706 he was in Spain, and

^ See Registers of the Conformed Churches of St. Patrick and St. Mary,
Dublin.

176

A Huguenot Family

was wounded at Almanza ; he then served in Flanders and
fought through the wars in the Lower Countries under Marl-
borough and Ligonier, gaining much credit as a gallant soldier.
When he returned to Dublin on half-pay, he was fortunate enough
to win the affections of a young lady of property as well as of
ancient lineage. Miss Jeanne Elizabeth Boyd, who became his
wife in 17 13-17 14, was the daughter of John Boyd of Bordeaux,
a grandson of William Boyd, ninth Earl of Kilmarnock, her
mother, Jeanne de Berchault, being the daughter of a Huguenot
refugee from La Rochelle. Owenstown in co. Kildare became
their home ; but Jacob de Pechels joined the i6th Regiment of
Infantry and continued on active service, rising to be Lieutenant-
colonel in 1739. His name was entered as " Pechell " at the
War Office, and the family patronymic has remained thus spelt
ever since Colonel Jacob Pechell died in 1750, aged seventy-two,
and was buried in St. Anne's Church, Dublin, near his father and
mother. After his death his widow went to live at Twickenham,
and whilst there she wrote in French a short narrative of the
persecutions suffered by the de Pechels, the pith of which is
embodied in the foregoing account. Mr. Jacob Pechell died in
1765, aged seventy-six, and was buried at Richmond Church,
Surrey. There are portraits of Jacob Pechell and his wife
as well as of his father and mother and other relatives at
Castle Goring in Sussex, now in the possession of the Somerset
family.^

Colonel and Mrs. Jacob Pechell had four children ; a
daughter Mary, who married Brigadier-General Caillaud of
Aston Rowant, Bucks, and died in 1808, aged seventy, and

^ Adelaide H. Pechell, second daughter of Sir George R. Brooke-Pechell,
married Colonel Alfred Somerset, succeeded to them at the death of her elder
sister, Lady Burrell.

177 M

A Huguenot Family

three sons, Samuel, George, and Paul Pechell. George, the
second one, was killed at Carthagena at the age of twenty-one ;
Samuel, the eldest, became Master of Chancery, and it was said
of him, " O that man ! if there were seeds of the old virtue left,
they live in him : ad unguem factus homo." His high sense of
honour and disinterested integrity was shown in the following
matter : Amongst his very great friends the Master of
Chancery counted the Marquise de Montandre, a daughter of
Baron de Spanheim, Ambassador Extraordinary at the Court of
Prussia. This lady's husband, Field-Marshal the Marquis de
Montandre, a descendant of the de la Rochefoucaulds, left
his fortune to his wife, and she in her will made Samuel Pechells
her residuary legatee, the sum which he thus became entitled
to inherit amounting to upwards of ^^40,000 ; but from the
dictates of a very highly sensitive conscience Mr. Pechell did
not feel it quite right that he should acquire so large a
fortune from a person to whom he was in no way related
(although he was such a very great friend of hers) until he had
ascertained that there were not any relations of the testatrix in
existence. He therefore collected all her effects and put them
into Chancery, in order that those who could make good their
claims by kindred to the Marquise might do so before the
Chancellor. Accordingly, one family from Berlin and another
from Geneva appeared, claimed, and obtained the whole of the
inheritance.

Samuel Pechell married twice. His first wife was Frances,
daughter of Fran9ois Gaultier, a Huguenot, and his second
Margaretta, daughter of Sir Thomas Pym Hales, Baronet. As
he had no children, it devolved upon his only surviving brother,
Paul, to carry on the Pechell family. Paul became a distin-
guished soldier, and was wounded at the battle of Lafeldt. In

178

A Huguenot Family

1797 he was created a Baronet by George III., and had in
consequence to be given English arms. Thus henceforward the
Pechell family dropped the " or, four eagles displayed," and
bore " Gules : a lion rampant " or on a chief of the Second
three laurel branches erect proper.

Sir Paul Pechell again improved the fortunes of the family by
marrying an heiress, Mary, only daughter of Thomas Brooke,
Esq., of Pagglesdon, Essex, who brought her husband
;/^ 1 00,000, and desired in her will that her eldest son, Thomas
Pechell, should assume the arms and name of Brooke in addition
to Pechell for himself and his issue. This Sir Thomas, who
married Charlotte, daughter of Sir John Clavering, had two
sons,^ both of whom were admirals and became successively third
and fourth Baronets. The latter had one son a Captain in the
77 th Regiment, who, after having received honourable mention
in the despatches, fell leading on his men to repel an attack
made by the Russians on the advanced trenches before Sebastopol
on the 3rd September 1855. This young officer was mourned
by all who knew him, and sorrow at his loss was expressed by
Queen Victoria, the Commander-in-Chief, and the whole of the
Light Division. A statue of him was erected by public
subscription, the work of Noble, and stands in the Pavilion at
Brighton, which borough his father represented in Parliament
for twenty- five years.

This ended the elder branch of the Pechells in the male line,
but Augustus Pechell, the second son of Sir Paul, carried on
the family, and was the progenitor of numerous descendants.
Amongst his grandsons were Sir George Pechell (father of the

^ Sir Thomas and Lady Brooke-Pechell must have been both very good-look-
ing, from the charming portraits of them at Castle Goring, by Hoppner, and Lady
Charlotte Bury in her "Journal" talks of the good looks of the sons.

179

A Huguenot Family

present Sir Samuel Brooke-Pechell) and the late Admiral
Mark Pechell, whose two brave sons ^ kept up the traditions
of the Pechell family by adhering firmly to their duty and
dying at their posts, leaving behind them unblemished reputa-
tions and everlasting regret.

^ Mark Horace Kerr Pechell and Charles Augustus Kerr Pechell, both
Captains in the King's Royal Rifle corps, killed in South Africa ; the former at
Glencoe, 20th October 1899, aged thirty-two, and the latter near Mafeking, 31st
October 1899, aged thirty. (See Appendix.)

180

t'lh'ltl VI*VAi I.

Captain iMakk Ki-.k-k I'l chi:i.i.

J^hoto. MAYALL

Captain Charles Kerr Pechell.

A STRANGE MISCARRIAGE
OF JUSTICE

" What made thee haste to an untimely date ?
'Twas friendship, that deserv'd a better fate."

It seems hardly credible that, as late as the reign of William
the Third, the punishment for " aiding and abetting " the
carrying off of a young lady under age, although done with her
consent, should have been death, and still more curious that the
actual abductor should have been allowed to go literally (and
metaphorically) "scot free"; yet such were the facts in the
following case.

In November 1690 there lived in Great Queen Street,
London, Mary, the young daughter and heiress of Philip
Wharton, Warden of the Mint, by his wife, who was a daughter
of Richard Hutton of Goldesborough, Yorkshire. Her parents
were dead and she lived with an aunt, Mrs. Bierley, who pro-
bably, as the sequel shows, had designs on the girl's fortune of
;^50,ooo for her son. At this time she was only thirteen years
of age, but apparently very precocious, and Captain the Hon.
James Campbell, a younger son of Archibald, ninth Earl of
Argyll, determined to secure her as his bride. Accordingly he
persuaded some of his friends to lend him an helping hand.
Archibald Montgomery was one whom he pressed into his
service, and Captain Sir John Johnston, third Baronet of Caskieben,
was another. The latter had served in the army with Captain

Campbell, and had distinguished himself greatly in King

181

A Strange Miscarriage of Justice

William III.'s wars in Flanders, and fought also at the battle of
the Boyne ; and, besides being a gallant soldier, was an accom-
plished and amiable young man.

With the assistance of his friends, Captain Campbell carried
off Miss Wharton, and was married to her by a clergyman of
the Established Church at his lodgings, where the newly-married
pair remained for two days, the bride writing from there to her
aunt to say that everything had taken place with her own free
will and consent. This did not prevent her friends from
taking immediate steps against the abductors. Lord Wharton,
a near relation of the bride, had much influence with the King,
and a Royal proclamation was issued for the apprehension of
Captain Campbell and his abettors, a high reward being offered.
Captain Campbell managed to escape into Scotland, but Sir John
Johnston was betrayed by his landlord for ^^50 and brought to
London. He was tried at the Old Bailey and condemned to
death, although evidence was given by the clergyman and many
others that the bride was a very willing party to the transac-
tion. Notwithstanding the great application that was made,
both to the King and to the Whartons, all was of no avail,
and the unfortunate young man was hanged at Tyburn on the
22nd December 1690, in his twenty-seventh year. Just before
his death Sir John wrote to the clergyman who attended him as
follows : —

"Sir, — I think it not amiss as a dying man to give you
a short account of all my innocency. On Friday morning, being
the day she was taken away, about ten of the clock. Captain
Campbell and Mr. Montgomery came to my lodging with a
haunch of Venison. Mr. Montgomery told me it was to treat
Madam Bierley and the rest of the young ladies, and that he
would have Captain Campbell marryed to one of them this

182

Capt. SiK John Johnston, Third Hart., of Caskieben.

From an old Woodcut.

A Strange Miscarriage of Justice

night, and asked me if I would go and be a witness to it. I
told him it must be by consent or I would have nothing to do
with it. He told me that if he did not procure her consent he
would not meddle with it, and so we parted, he desiring me to
come and meet him at 6 of the clock at a coffee-house near his
lodging, which I did, and met Captain Campbell there, and some
time afterwards Mr. Montgomery came and called us to the
door and told us ' the business was done.' About 8 of the
clock Madam Bierley's coach came by and they went all away.
Captain Campbell called a coach and six horses and had us go in
it, and ordered the coachman to drive after her coach and stop
in Great Queen Street. When she (Miss Wharton) was put
into the coach (as I'm a dying man and now receive the Sacrament)
I could perceive no discomposure in her at all. . . . She began
to talk of My Lord Argyle and told us that she had seen some
of his children at Ham, and asked him (Captain Campbell) if
he were the second brother. Upon some discourse she gave
him her hand that she would marry him. This good humour
continued still with her, so that when the Parson desired her to
say the words after him, she spoke with so audible a voice that
the people in the room heard her louder than the Minister.
After the ceremony it was observed that her wedding-ring was
too big ; her husband told her that it could be changed : she
said, ' No, it is not lucky to change a wedding-ring.' At
supper there was nothing to be observed but an equal satisfac-
tion between both. The next day, about ten of the clock,
Mr. Montgomery asked her if she would go to Mr. Pontaes to
dinner ; she said, ' With all my heart,' where we went and stayed
till four in the afternoon. Then we went to our lodgings and
played at cards till half-an-hour after nine. Then she went to
bed with all the seeming pleasantness imaginable.

"This is the Truth and no more, as I am a dying man.
Neither truly was it ever my intention or design to be a witness
of anything that would look like a Force ; neither indeed was

183

A Strange Miscarriage of Justice

there any occasion for it, she being so very frank and free of
herself to the marriage."

She wrote likewise to her aunt freely a letter desiring "She
might not be troubled for her, for she was very well with her
husband Captain Campbell, &c."

During his imprisonment after condemnation Sir John sent
for several eminent divines " to assist him to make sure his
peace for an eternal consolation ; " and we are told " he was often
in meditations and prayers expressing his own vileness and un-
worthiness for the sins he had committed against God through the
frailty of youth and the corruption of nature, earnestly begging
that he might be thoroughly washed and cleansed in the blood
of Jesus Christ, and so he continued to wean himself from
worldly things and fix his thoughts upon everlasting joys and
have his eyes upon the place whither he hoped he was hastening."
When the day arrived he was put into a mourning coach followed
by a hearse, attended by two divines, and was so far from fear
of death that he said should a reprieve come it would do him
an injury rather than a kindness.

Having come out of the coach and standing in a cart, he
made a very long speech to the people, and then gave them a
religious exhortation.

A Bill was brought into the House of Commons within

three weeks of the abduction to render the marriage of Miss

Wharton void, and this, although the Earl of Argyll petitioned

against it, speedily passed both Houses. Miss Wharton married

Colonel Robert Bierley, of Midridge Grange, Goldworthy,

Yorks, who had a regiment of horse in King William's service.

No doubt Madam Bierley had always intended this marriage

should take place, and therefore was very irate at her niece

marrying some one else.

184

A Strange Miscarriage of Justice

The real offender, Captain James Campbell, not only escaped
all punishment but lived prosperously ever after. Nine years
later he was elected member for Renfrew, which he represented
in Parliament till 1702, and from 1708 till 17 10 he sat for the
Ayr Burghs. He also managed to marry another heiress, the
Honourable Margaret Leslie, daughter of David Leslie, first
Baron Newark, by which marriage he became the possessor of
the estates of Burnbank and Boquhan. In a MS. pedigree at
Saltoun House, N.B., there is a notice relating to this marriage,
and "the Burnbank Papers" contain the correspondence of
Colonel and Mrs. James Campbell. He died in 17 13, but his
widow survived till 1755, when she died at a very advanced age.
Her three sons predeceased her, and her daughter Mary never
married, so that none of their posterity exist. Mary Campbell
bequeathed Boquhan to her cousin Henry Fletcher, second son of
Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, Lord Milton, to whose descendant
it now belongs.

If the Honourable James Campbell had any heart he must
often have felt deep remorse at the sad and unmerited fate of
his young friend, who was, through him, the victim of such a
curious miscarriage of Justice.

185

OUR POLISH COUSINS

Horace Walpole, writing to John Chute in 1754, tells the
following ridiculous story : —

" Have you seen young Poniatowski ? ^ He is very hand-
some. You have seen the figure of the Duchess of Gordon,^
who looks like a raw-boned Scotch metaphysician that has got
a red face by drinking water. One day at the drawing-room,
having never spoken to him, she sent one of the foreign
ministers to invite Poniatowski to dinner with her for the next
day. He bowed and went. The moment the door opened
her two little sons, attired like Cupids, with bows and arrows
shot at him, and one of them literally hit his hair, and was
very near putting his eye out and hindering his casting it to the
couch : ' Where she, another sea-born Venus, lay.' The only
company besides this Highland Goddess were two Scotchmen
who could not speak a word of any language but their own
Erse ; and to complete his astonishment at this allegorical
entertainment, with the dessert there entered a little horse, and
galloped round the table ; a hieroglyphic I cannot solve, Ponia-
towski accounts for this profusion of kindness by his great-
grandmother being a Gordon ! "

This Scotch cousin-ship carries us back to the middle of
the seventeenth century, when a daughter of George Gordon,

^ Stanislaus Auj^ustus Poniatowski, who ten years later was elected King of
Poland, was born 1732, died 1798.

* Lady Catherine Gordon, daughter of William, second Earl of Aberdeen, and
widow of Cosmo, third Duke of Gordon, who died in 1752, aged thirty-one; she
married, secondly, General Staats Long Morris, Colonel of the 6ist.

186

Our Polish Cousins

second Marquis of Huntly, married a Polish lady, and became
the progenitor of innumerable descendants of high degree,
including many illustrious men who made their mark in
history.

George Gordon, Lord Huntly, was himself a fine character,
far in advance of his age in general attainments, and possessed
all the qualities of a brave and brilliant soldier combined with a
great love of learning and learned men. Through his mother,
Lady Henriet Stuart, daughter of Esme Stuart, Duke of
Lennox, he had a great deal of French blood in him, and at an
early age he entered the service of the King of France, and in
1624 commanded the Scottish Guard of Louis XIII., called the
Scottish Gens-d'Armes. Lord Huntly was probably describing
his own sentiments when he composed the distich, which was
placed on the Palace of the Louvre : —

" Non orbis gentem, non urbum gens habit ulla ?
Urbus domum, dominum, nee domus ulla parem,"

which may be thus translated : —

"The world hath not such a nation,
Nor nation a city like this,
Nor city a mansion can boast,
Nor mansion a Lord like this."

Notwithstanding his Gallic predilections, when duty and

loyalty called him Lord Huntly returned to his native country,

" carrying over with him," we are told, " a party of gallant

young gentlemen well equipped." He then threw all his

energies into the cause of King Charles I., raised large forces for

him, fought valiantly, was twice imprisoned, and ultimately

beheaded in 1649, suffering with the greatest courage. His

honours were attained, and his two estates, Bog-of-Gicht (now

187

Our Polish Cousins

Gordon Castle) and Strathbogie, were taken possession of by the
Parliament.

The following letter, written by him, gives some idea of
his character ; it was a " Reply to certain noblemen, gentle-
men and ministers. Covenanters of Scotland, who sent to
signify unto him that it behoved him either to assist their
designs or to be carried to prison in the Castle of Edinburgh,
20th April 1629."

" To be your prisoner is by much the less displeasing to
me, that my accusation is for nothing else but loyalty, and that
I have been brought into this estate by such unfair means, as
can never be made to appear honourable in those who used
them. Whereas you offer liberty upon condition of my entering
into your covenant ; I am not so bad a merchant as to buy it
with the loss of my conscience, fidelity and honour, which in so
doing I should make account to be wholly perished. I have
already given my faith to my Prince (Charles I.), upon whose
head this crown, by all law of nature and nations is justly fallen,
and will not falsify that faith by joining with any in a pretence
of religion which my own judgment cannot excuse from
rebellion : for it is well known that in the primitive church no
arms were held lawful being lifted by subjects against their
lawful Prince, though the whole frame of Christianity was then
in question. . . . For my own part I am in your power and
resolved not to leave that foul title of traitor as an inheritance
upon my posterity; you may take my head from my shoulders
but not my heart from my sovereign."

Notwithstanding his great loyalty it was said that Lord
Huntly's morbid jealousy of Montrose ruined the King's
cause in Scotland. King Charles, however, wrote a letter from
his prison in Carisbrooke to the Earl of Lanark, entreating him

Oeouci- (}()iu)().\, 2m) .Mak-oiis oi- Ulnti.v.
(From a Picture hy Geo. Jameson helonj.,„o to the Duke of Riehm.Hul)

Our Polish Cousins

to intercede that his life might be spared, which, however, was
unavailing.^

Lord Huntly married Lady Anne Campbell, daughter of
Archibald, seventh Earl of Argyll, who was only thirteen years
old at the time, and died at the age of thirty-one, leaving him
with a family of ten children, five sons and five daughters.
The eldest, George, Lord Gordon, was said to have been of
singular worth and many accomplishments. He served in his
youth in Lorraine and Alsace under the Marechal de la Force,
and distinguished himself by his valour. He met his death
at the battle of Alford whilst fighting under Montrose. The
latter, Wishart tells us, " could not command his grief and
mourned bitterly over the fate of his only and dearest friend,
grievously complaining that one who was the honour of his
nation, the ornament of the Scots nobility and the boldest
assertor of the Royal Authority in the north, had fallen in
the flower of his youth. As the report of his death spread
among the soldiers every one appeared to be struck dumb.
Unmindful of the victory or of the plunder, they thronged
about the body of their dead Captain, some weeping over his
wounds and kissing his lifeless limbs, while others praised
his comely appearance even in his death, and extolled his
noble mind, which was enriched with every qualification that
could adorn his high birth." Lord Huntly's second son,
James, Viscount Aboyne, who also fought valiantly for Charles
I., had escaped to Paris, and when intelligence of the exe-
cution of his beloved master reached there, his grief affected

' There is a portrait of George, Lord Huntly, by Vandyke, of which Allan
Ramsay says: "It is perfect, only the background, retouched by Martin, in
my remembrance." It was then at Drummond Castle, and there is another
portrait of him in Pinkerton's "Scottish Gallery." We have here reproduced
the first of these.

189

Our Polish Cousins

him so greatly that he died a few days after. Lewis Gordon,
Lord Huntly's third son, did not live to get back his estates,
but his son had the act of forfeiture rescinded, and was created
Duke of Gordon by Charles II. in 1684.

Charles, Earl of Aboyne, Lord Huntly's fourth son, was
ancestor of the present Marquis of Huntly. Lord Henry
Gordon, the fifth son, was a child at the time of his father's
tragic death, and of him we shall hear more hereafter.

Of his five daughters, Lord Huntly had managed to

marry three of them the year after their mother's death, to

the Earls of Perth and Haddington and Lord Seton, and a

few years later Lady Mary Gordon, the fourth daughter,

married Alexander Irvine of Drum. There remained the

two youngest of the family totally without means. These

were the little twins, Lord Henry and Lady Katharine, who had

been born in Paris and were there at the time of their father's

death. A good friend came forward in the shape of the learned

Dr. Davidson, who had been devoted to Lord Huntly, and

now took the penniless orphans under his care. Dr. Davidson

was a native of Aberdeen, but had spent most of his life in

foreign parts. He was Physician to the King of France and

Curator of the Jardin des Plantes. He afterwards settled in

Poland and took with him the twins, who became naturalised

Poles. Lord Henry went into the service of the King of

Poland, and remained there for several years in very honourable

military employment. In 1658 he obtained for himself and

his heirs, by an edict of King John Casimir, the right of

Polish nobility. After the Restoration he returned to Scotland,

and Charles II. gave him a life annuity of ;^30,ooo Scots a

year. This was in consequence of a letter which he wrote

to the King in 1665, when he was so much of a foreigner

190

GEORGK JAMhSON, flitlX.

An\h, Marchioness of Huntly, oaughter of the 7th Earl of Argyll.
(From the picture in possession of the Duke of Richmond)

Our Polish Cousins

that he wrote in French and signed himself " H. de Gordon
d'Huntly." He is said to have died in Scotland, and there
is no evidence of his having left any legitimate issue ; but
we have before us a long pedigree of Polish Gordons, who
are said in Poland to be his descendants, many of them living
in that country. They are descended from John Gordon, a
Colonel in the Polish army, who in 1699 complained that
some persons of the name of Gordon " used his title," and
he obtained from the Polish Parliament a document stating
that he was the only person who might use it ! This title,
which he and all his descendants continued to use, was
" Marques of Huntly," the reason being that, as their ancestor
had been a son of the Marquis of Huntly, all his descendants
were entitled to the name. The English custom of primo-
geniture does not exist in Poland, and rank depends upon the
rank of the father for sons and daughters alike. There
remains, however, in this pedigree a missing link between Lord
Henry Gordon and John Gordon, the Polish Colonel.

Lord Henry's twin sister Lady Katharine Gordon, as soon
as she was old enough, became one of the Maids-of-honour to
Marie-Louise de Gonzague, Queen of Poland. This Queen,
with whom Lady Katharine Gordon was ever after associated,
was a daughter of Charles, Due de Mantoue, and had a " vie
orageuse." Tallemant said of her "Jamais personne n'a eu tant
de hausses qui baissent," Handsome and high-spirited, she
came of a fiery race, and shone for many years at the Court of
Anne of Austria, wife of Louis XIII. From her earliest youth
her ambition had been to attain the highest rank. When she
was sixteen, Gaston d'Orleans, brother of Louis XIII., who then
seemed destined to occupy the throne of France, was madly in

love with her and tried to carry her off. Some years after her

191

Our Polish Cousins

love for Cinq Mars,^ immortalised by Alfred de Musset, took
the place of her ambition, and after his tragic death the great
Conde was said to have been her lover. At the age of thirty-
three, when her looks were somewhat on the wane, Marie-Louise
was still unmarried, and the French Government, wishing to
extend their influence with Poland, suggested that she should
become the second wife of the fat and gouty King Ladislas IV.
of Poland. To this proposal she readily agreed.

The fian^ailles by proxy took place privately in the Palais
Royale, in the presence of the young King of France, Louis
XIV,, who was then only eight years of age. Madame de
Motteville says that the Royal bride had " un grand air dans
toute sa personne qui convenait a une reine," but apparently
she had no great good looks at this time. She left France in
November 1645 accompanied by the Marechale de Guebriant,
and by a magnificent embassy, who came over from Poland to
escort her back to that country. The splendour of the dresses,
jewels, horses, and equipages of the two hundred Polish nobles
who took part on this occasion almost defies description. Their
beautiful and picturesque dolmans of satin of every hue, with
mantles of cloth of gold or crimson velvet lined with furs,
of inestimable value — " pointcs de zibelines," and " pieds-de-
pantheres " ; their caps of gold surmounted with aigrettes of
black heron's plumes fastened with *' agraffes " of enormous
precious stones ; and even their horses —

"Instratos ostro alipedes, pictisque tapetis,
Aurea pectoribus demissa monilia pendent :
Tecti auro, fulvum mandunt sub dentibus a aura " —

for they too had headdresses with heron's plumes and agraffes
of gold and precious stones, and saddles of gold brocade sewn

' Henri d'Effiat, Marquis de Cinq Mars, Grand Ecuyer to Louis XHI.

192

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with turquoises and diamonds, the harness being of pure gold,
so fine that it was as flexible and supple as leather ; even the
horses' shoes of the Palatine were of massive gold, and those
of others in the escort of silver. The swords or scimitars that
hung from the saddles were fine works of art encrusted with
pearls, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and other precious stones ;
the quivers for the arrows were of shagreen, richly worked in
gold and silver. In short, as an eye-witness writes, nothing
that the Greeks wrote of the richness and luxury of the ancient
Persians came up to this display. Never before had Paris seen
such magnificence !

But If all this splendour threw a glamour over her loveless
marriage, a sad awakening was in store for this poor Princess.
The journey from France to Poland was, as can be well conceived,
an arduous undertaking in those days. And though the bride
made many stoppages by the way, we are told that she was
greatly fatigued by the time she had reached her destination.
When she arrived at Warsaw there was no warm welcome for
her, and the King never even saw her till she was in the church,
where they were to be married, and never excused himself for
not rising from his chair. Marie-Louise knelt before him and
kissed his hand, but the brutal boor made no signs of even
ordinary civility, and, turning to Bregy, the French Ambassador,
said to him quite loud, *'Est-ce la cette grande beaute dont
vous m'avez tant dit de merveilles .? " He then rose from his
chair and went to the altar, where the ceremony took place.
After this a supper was served, and the Marechale de Guebriant
says it looked disgusting and tasted worse. Everything for
the accommodation of Marie-Louise was totally devoid of
elegance or even comfort, which came doubly hard upon her
who was such a Sybarite that Mazarin used to say the Princess's

193 N

Our Polish Cousins

punishment in purgatory would be to sleep on rough sheets
and have bad smells round her ! Altogether the poor thing was
so miserable that she said to her lady-in-waiting she should
return to France. Madame de Guebriant complained of the
King's treatment, and remarked that France would be ill-pleased
when she took back this news. Her complaints brought about
rather a better state of affairs, and Marie-Louise consented to
remain. Mercifully for her. King Ladislas died two years later,
and the year after she married his brother and successor to the
throne, John Casimir. He had been a Jesuit monk and made
a feeble King, but she became virtually the ruler of Poland.
In every Court of Europe her power was recognised, and we even
find the Czar Alexis asking Louis XIV. to intercede on his
behalf with the Queen of Poland so that he should be allowed
to act with regard to that country as he desired. Then came
the war with Sweden, when the King and Queen of Poland had
to fly, and she behaved like a heroine, rallying the nobles and
arming the people.

After they were restored to their throne. Queen Marie-
Louise, having lost her only two children, began to think of the
future, and wished to ensure the succession to some one over
whom she might still wield her influence ; the young Due
d'Enghien, son of Conde, was the candidate on whom she set
her affections (perhaps for sake's sake), and her plan was to
marry him to one of her nieces, daughters of the Palatine
Prince Edward. She persuaded John Casimir to propose him
to the Diet as his future successor, but the Elector William
Frederick soon made it known that he was very much averse to
the occupation of the throne of Poland by any />ro/(/^^' of France.
Marie-Louise was furious, and when the Elector's Ambassador

insisted on the good intention of his master, she replied :

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" J'aime mieux une mauvaise intention avec de bons effets,
qu'une bonne avec de mauvais." At this juncture the Grand
Marechal Lubomirska suggested to the Elector that he should
take the Crown of Poland for himself, saying that the only
preliminary necessary was that he should hear a few masses.
Frederick-William refused to change his religion, and wrote,
" Comment mes sujets pourraient-ils se fier a moi si je n'etais
fidele a mon Dieu ; " but he offered great inducements if the
Diet would waive his religion and elect him King, suggesting
that one of his sons should become the husband of Marie-
Louise's niece.

Louis XIV. urged the election either of the Due d'Enghien
or of his father, the Prince de Conde, and this brings us back
to Lady Katharine Gordon, whom we have seen was Maid-of-
honour to the Queen of Poland. Her upbringing at the
Polish Court seems to have inculcated in her the same ambi-
tious projects and love of power as were the leading character-
istics of her royal mistress, and she therefore gladly accepted as
her husband Count John Andrew Morsztyn (commonly called
Morstein), who though considerably older than herself was
Lord High Treasurer of Poland and a personage of the first im-
portance in that country. He was descended from a very ancient
family, and was a clever and handsome man. He had been
brought up in France, and had a thorough knowledge of the
French language, having translated he Cid of Corneille into
Polish. He was a persona grata at the Court of Louis XIV.
and had considerable influence with that monarch, so much so
that when the Polish Government, at the instigation of Queen
Marie-Louise, sent him to beg the assistance of " le Roi
Soleil " against the Tartars and the Turks, Count Morstein
easily persuaded Louis to promise that he would send to

195

Our Polish Cousins

Poland ten thousand men, commanded by the Prince de
Conde in person.

The marriage of Lady Katharine Gordon took place at
Warsaw in 1659, the only member of her family present at
the ceremony being her brother, Lord Henry Gordon, who
was, like herself, virtually a Pole. An extraordinary speech
made on the occasion of this wedding by the Vice-Chancellor
of Poland, Leszcrynski, is given in the Appendix.

From the day of her marriage, Lady Katharine, or Katrine
as she was called, mixed freely in the political intrigues of
the Polish Court, and Mylne tells us " Lady Catharine was an
active woman, and had as muche credit among the nobilitie of
PoUand as over her husband's mind anent the election of
the Prince of Conti to be King of Poland."

Suddenly the whole course of affairs was changed by the
unexpected death of the ruling spirit of Poland, Queen Marie-
Louise, which took place in 1667 when she was about fifty-four
years of age. John Casimir, her husband, was broken-hearted at
her loss ; and this, combined with all his other troubles, caused him
to abdicate, and he retired to France to the monastery of St.
Germain-des-Pres, of which Louis XIV. made him the Abbot.
He seems, however, to have mixed with the world, for Madame
de Scudery says, in writing to Bussy Rabutin in May 1670 : —

" Le roi de Pologne agite ici fort nos dames ; il a des
pierreries dont elles ont toutes envie, et quoique il ne soit ni
jeune ni beau ni meme fort spiritual, il est fort recherche, car
depuis votre depart les femmes font encore moins de fa^on de
faire les premiers pas envers les couronnes."

Meanwhile the intrigues a propos of the nomination of the

next king of Poland continued amongst the foreign potentates,

196

Our Polish Cousins

which ended in an obscure individual being elected, nolens volens,

the Grand Marshal, the celebrated John Sobieski, practically

wielding the sceptre. This great man married the young widow,

Princess Zamoyska, jtee Marie de la Grange, and commonly

known as " Marysienka," who was brought from Paris to Poland

when only four years old by Marie de Gonzague. She was said

to be the daughter of Antoine de la Grange, Marquis d'Arquien,

by his wife, Marie Fran9oise de la Chatre, gouvernante to Princesse

Marie de Gonzague, but Barriere quotes President Bouhour, and

evidently believes his assertion that she was the natural daughter

of Marie de Gonzague by the Prince de Conde. Whatever her

parentage was, nature had well endowed her. She is described

as being most fascinating, with a beauty both regular and

piquante, combined with much wit and considerable ability.

Her first husband, to whom she was married when very young,

Jacob de Radziwill, Prince de Zamosc, was a man of the highest

rank in Poland and possessed immense wealth, but was given to

drunkenness and addicted to much swearing ; and Marysienka

very soon after her marriage began to bemoan her hard fate.

John Sobieski's home was only ten leagues from Zamosc.

Marysienka consoled herself with his friendship, and immediately

after the death of her husband she married him private! v — some

say the ceremony took place before Prince Zamoyska was buried !

— and when she arrived for his funeral, Princess Wisniowiegka, his

sister, refused to receive her, saying, "You did not invite us to

your wedding, we do not invite you to the burial ! " and on

Marysienka saying to some one at Zamosc, " Is this the way you

receive your mistress ? Do you know to whom you speak ? " the

answer she received was, "Yes, to Madame Sobieski."

At the time of Sobieski's greatest triumph over the Turks,

the late King of Poland, Michael, died in 1672, and by a

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Our Polish Cousins

curious coincidence his predecessor, John Casimir, had an
apoplectic seizure which proved fatal almost at the same time,
and one dirge was sung at the obsequies of both Kings.

Again there was a diversity of opinion amongst the princes
of Europe as to whom the crown of Poland should be offered,
and no less than seventeen candidates presented themselves
for the suffrages of the Diet. It ended in Sobieski being pro-
claimed King as John III.

Marysienka, or as she was now called Marie-Casimir, had
thus reached the summit of her ambition, and she contrived
to manage not only her adoring husband but his Diet. She was
present at all the debates, not in public, but where she could
hear without being seen, and she was always mixing herself up
in political intrigues and greatly harassed Sobieski; but he was
so devoted to her that she invariably got the better of him even
against his judgment. He wished to follow the policy of
Louis XIV. concerning Austria, but she from a personal spite
determined to thwart the French King, and Sobieski could not
withstand Marie's artifices. Proud of her elevation, she had
wished to visit France and show off her grandeur there. With
this in view, she asked Louis XIV. to give her father a "duche-
pairie," and for herself she asked that she should be received
with the same honours as were given to the Queen of England.
Louis XIV. refused both demands, and said, " Je sais la difference
qu'on doit faire entre une reine hereditaire et une reine (Elective."
This impolitic answer piqued both Sobieski and his wife, and
she vowed vengeance.

Afterwards Louis's Ambassador at Warsaw promised money

and the titles of " due et pair " to the father of the Polish

Queen, but she replied that it was too late ; and John Sobieski

entered into a treaty with the l^.mperor Leopold I., and fought

198

Our Polish Cousins

for him against the Hungarians and their allies the Turks.
After his brilliant relief of Vienna, Sobieski wrote to the Queen,
beginning : " Seule joie de mon ame, charmante, et bien-aimee
Mariette," and went on to discuss more about the large booty
he had got than the glory he had acquired, but this was most
probably because he knew it would please her. After enumerat-
ing " une ceinture de diamants, deux montres de diamants, cinq
carquois de rubis, de saphirs et de perles fort riches, des four-
rures de martres zibelines les plus belles du monde," he goes
on to say, " Vous ne me direz done pas, mon coeur, comme les
femmes tartares a leurs maris lorsqu'ils reviennent sans butin,
' Tu n'es pas un guerrier puisque tu ne m'as rien rapporte ; car
il n'y a que I'homme qui se met en avant qui peut attraper
quelque chose.' "

Whilst Sobieski was away gaining his laurels, political in-
trigues were going on at his Court, in which, as usually was the
case here, the ladies took a great part. There seems to have
been great enmity between the Queen and her quondam friend
and companion. Lady Katharine Morstein. Amongst the letters
of the latter, which were placed with the archives of Montmo-
rency-Luxembourg at the Quai d'Orsai in Paris, are some
very spiteful ones about Marie-Louise, whom she calls, not
perhaps unjustly, " the Vixen." So galling did Lady Katharine
find it to have to pay homage to her, that she gave out that
in future she was determined to live far from the world and
spend her time in playing cards and saying her prayers ! If to
get away from Court was her wish, she was soon able to gratify
it fully.

At this time Forbin, Bishop of Marseille, the French

Ambassador at the Court of Warsaw, was leaving no means

untried to attach the King of Poland to the interests of France,

199

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and offered immense treasure as the price of his neutrality.
These offers were rejected with disdain by the noble Sobieski, but
letters of the French Ambassador were intercepted in which the
latter stated that he had been baffled in his attempt to detach
the King of Poland from the interests of Austria, and that he
found that monarch equally proof against the power of gold
and of ambition. He then proceeded to state that he had
been more successful elsewhere, and that the Grand Treasurer
Morstein and the family of Sapieha were easy to secure to the
interests of France ; and he went on to say that he had bought
over Count Morstein, and through him knew all the Cabinet
secrets of Warsaw. Amongst this correspondence there was a
letter of Morstein's in which he professed " un devouement
total aux interets de la France." ^ These letters were read
before the Senate, and the Diet wished to deal summarily with
the treacherous Treasurer, but Morstein undertook to justify
his conduct, and by his specious eloquence persuaded Sobieski
to let him retire. In the King's speech on this occasion he said
that he could " never believe that the Sapiehas would barter
their honour for dross," and that he was convinced the
Ambassador exaggerated the number of those he found traitors.
The King stipulated that Count Morstein should disclose his
cipher, and also give up to the army the body of soldiers which
he kept at his own expense. The latter he did, but his cipher
remained a secret. Morstein retired to France in 1683 with his
wife. Presumably he had well feathered his nest ; the Treasury
was found less well-furnished than it should have been, but not
so his own palace which he had built in a faubourg of Warsaw,
and which was so magnificent that, in 1736, it was bought by
King Augustus II. for his own residence. Bernard Conner, the

' Zaluski, vol. ii. p. 281.
200

Our Polish Cousins

physician of John Sobieski, says that Count Morstein sent a
considerable quantity of plunder out of Poland ; and soon after
his arrival in France the ex-Treasurer purchased the whole
country of Chateau-Vilain. He died in 1693, aged eighty. Lady
Katharine predeceased him by two years, and died in Paris at
the age of fifty-five.^ It was through their marriage that our
ancestors claimed cousinship with the Bielinskis, Czartoriskis,
Poniatowskis, Lubomirskis, Potockis, Lubinskis, Malagoskis, &:c.
The eldest son of Lady Katharine married a daughter of the
Due de Chevreuse, but he was killed at the siege of Namur in
1692, leaving only two daughters, one of whom married Comte
Casimir Louis Bielinski, Great Chamberlain at the Court of
Poland, and the other, Isabella, became the wife of Prince
Casimir Czartoriski. She was the mother of Prince Michael and
Prince Augustus Czartoriski, the well-known patriots, and of
Princess Constance Czartoriski, who married Count Stanislaus
Poniatowski, and had by him ten children, one of whom was
Prince Joseph Poniatowski, Napoleon's favourite general, sur-
named " le Bayard Polonais," whose heroic death Beranger has
celebrated. Another of the sons was Stanislaus Poniatowski, the
last King of Poland, whom Catherine, Duchess of Gordon, re-
ceived in such an extraordinary manner as one of her Polish
cousins.

^ Gazette de France du 17 mars 1691, p. 8.

201

A LEFT-HANDED MARRIAGE AND SOME-
THING ABOUT OUR PALATINE RELATIONS

One of the most curious love correspondences celebrated in
history is that of the Elector Palatine, Karl Ludwig, with Luise
von Degenfeldt, who became his morganatic wife.

Karl Ludwig was the second son of Frederick V., Elector
Palatine of the Rhine, and for some months King of Bohemia,
by his wife Princess Elizabeth of England (daughter of
James I.), who during six years reigned in their beautiful palace
of Heidelberg in equal prosperity and popularity, their Court
being renowned for its learning and its splendour.

Then came the Thirty Years' War, and Frederick was over-
whelmed by Austria, and deprived not only of Bohemia but even
of his hereditary dominions, and the Palatinate was ravaged by
Spinola and his Spanish troops, Elizabeth had to fly for her
life from Prague in 1620, and whilst her husband continued
fighting, she lived chiefly at The Hague,^ where from her beauty
and engaging Stuart manners she gained the name of the
Queen of Hearts.

The Elector Palatine Frederick, after enduring many hard-
ships, died at Mayence in 1633, aged thirty-six, as much from
a broken heart as from any other cause. At his death the
Queen of Bohemia (as his widow is generally called) received
true sympathy from her brother Charles I., and he allowed her

' Maurice, Prince of Orange, Stadtholder of Holland (eldest son of William
the Silent), was her husband's uncle.

202

A Left-Handed Marriage

;^20,ooo a year; but before many years had elapsed his tragic
end threw her into a fresh sea of troubles. Besides being
plunged in grief she fell into comparative poverty, so much so
that her daughter Louisa, who was a pupil of Honthorst and a
great artist, often sold her pictures to assist in keeping up the
reduced household. At the Restoration Elizabeth went to
London incognito, and visited her generous and chivalrous
friend Lord Craven, who put his house in Drury Lane at her
disposal, where she stayed nine months. Charles II,, her nephew,
who had often visited her at The Hague during his wanderings,
now settled ;^ 12,000 a year upon her, and she was the first lady
at his Court. She moved into Leicester House, but five days
after, this tempestuous life, just as it seemed to have entered into
a haven of repose, was brought to a sudden end by an acute
attack of inflammation of the lungs.

The Queen of Bohemia had thirteen children. Her second
son, Karl Ludwig, succeeded his father in his titles. Prince
Rupert and Prince Maurice (in a lesser degree) both made
their mark in history, but of her seven sons not one left a
grandson.^

Of her daughters Louisa Hollandine was said to be the
handsomest, and she was talked of as a wife for her cousin
Frederick-William of Brandenburg, but for political reasons
this idea was given up and she remained unmarried. She
embraced the Catholic religion, and Louis XIV. made her abbess
of Maubisson, though, if report be true, her temperament was
ill-suited to a cloistered life ! Sophia, the youngest, was a very
remarkable woman ; she is said to have had considerable beauty ;

^ Her eldest son, a singularly promising young man, was drowned in the
Zuyder Zee, and Prince Edward became a Catholic and married Princess Anne
de Gonzague, sister of the Queen of Poland.

203

A Left-Handed Marriage

her mother's charm of manner, great wit, and royal grace added
to the highest intellectual attainments, and merited fully what
was proverbially said of her, namely, that she was " the most
perfect lady in Europe." She married Ernest Augustus, Duke
of Brunswick, which the Queen of Bohemia thought at the
time was a very poor match for her brilliant daughter, although
she was penniless and twenty-eight years of age. Ernest
Augustus, however, became Elector of Hanover, and their son
was George I., ancestor of our present King Edward VII., who
mercifully has revived in himself the gracious charm of his
Stuart ancestors.

But for sheer intellect and erudition all the Palatine
Princesses paled before their sister Elizabeth. She had none
of the charm of her mother, and we are told that, though
otherwise handsome and with a dazzling complexion, her
sharp aquiline nose was generally red. She probably inherited
her solid character from her Nassau ancestors, and was said
not only to have been the ablest woman of her time, but to
have surpassed in capacity and intellectual attainments most
learned men. This erudite Princess was celebrated for her
spiritual liaison with Descartes, who dedicated his Principia
to her, and had such entire confidence in her judgment that
he rarely gave to the public any one of his works without
first submitting the MS. to her inspection, and he declared
that she was the only person who perfectly comprehended
his writings. Princess Elizabeth owed, no doubt, a great deal
of her devotion to abstruse science and her ardent love of
study to her intercourse with a still more remarkable woman,
Anna Maria von Schilrmann, of world-wide celebrity — an inter-
course which was never altered by the fact that their philosophical

convictions as time went on were diametrically opposed, Anna

204

I'tmtil ■ KMKiiV WAI.KKK-

I^I.I/.A1{KTH PkIiVCHSS I^ALATINH.

1618— US80.
(From A painting by Gerard Hontliorst in the National Poitrait Gallery^

A Left-Handed Marriage

von Schiirmann being a disciple of Voetius and Princess Elizabeth
of Descartes. When the awful tragedy of her uncle King
Charles I.'s death took place, the shock gave Princess Elizabeth
a long and alarming illness. Descartes wrote her an interesting
letter on the occasion : —

" Amongst many sad tidings which I received at the same
time," says the philosopher, "the saddest news of all was
the announcement of your Highness's illness. Your Highness
tells me of your strong wish to make verses during your malady,
and I am thereby minded of what Plato relates of Socrates, who
whilst in prison was pursued by a similar desire. I believe
that this inclination for verse proceeds from an agitation of
the animal spirits strong enough in weak heads to overturn
entirely the whole economy of the imagination, but that in
firm and generous natures it merely predisposes towards poetry ;
and I hold it as a sure sign of a mind stronger and more
elevated than those of ordinary mortals. If I did not know
in how great a degree your nature rises above others, I should
have been seriously alarmed at the effect likely to be produced
upon you by the conclusion of the tragedies in England ; but
I build upon the fact of your Highness's being well used to
fortune's frowns, and I recognise that the danger of death,
whence you yourself have so newly escaped, must diminish in
some measure your surprise and horror at the catastrophe
of so near a relative. You must necessarily be less struck
down by it than if affliction were a stranger to you. Although
the death we speak of, being so violent, may seem at first
far worse than that which is met in a man's bed, yet, if all
be well considered, in how much is it more glorious and
more sweet ! This should console your Highness. It is
surely something to die in a way which commands universal
pity — to leave the world, praised and mourned by whoever
partakes of human sentiments. It is undeniable that, without

205

A Left-Handed Marriage

his last trial, the gentleness and other virtues of the dead
King would never have been so remarked and so esteemed
as they will be in future by whoever shall read his history.
I am likewise persuaded that in the last hours of his life,
his forgiving conscience caused him far more satisfaction than
his indignation (alleged to be the only weakness observable
in him). As to what regards his mere bodily sufferings, I
do not account them as anything, for they are so short,
that, could assassins use a fever or any of the ills that Nature
employs to snatch men from the world, they might with
reason be considered much more cruel than when they destroy
life with the short sharp blow of an axe. I dare not, how-
ever, prolong my reflections upon this fatal subject, but I
will add that at all events it is infinitely better to be com-
pletely delivered from every shadow of false hope than to
be perpetually and uselessly fostering an illusion."

The following year Descartes himself died, falling a victim
to the severity of the climate at Stockholm and succumbing to
an attack of inflammation of the lungs at the age of fifty-three.
The loss to Princess Elizabeth of her dear friend and master
was irremediable. Had he lived, no doubt she would not have
tarnished her great reputation, as she did in later life, by acting
in such a manner that really it does look as if the shock of
King Charles's tragedy had, to use Descartes' words, " overturned
the whole economy of her imagination," which he dreaded, but
hoped had been averted. The philosopher's death so soon after
deprived her of that mental guide whose excellent judgment
would probably have prevented her from being led away by the
wild and impious theories of an arch-impostor.

Jean Labadie began life as a Jesuit priest at Bordeaux, and

continued a member of the society for fifteen years, during which

time he was much admired for his abilities and the eloquence of

206

'•S

'-i

■r.

—

■^

:-' "^

- |5

A Left-Handed Marriage

his preaching. When he separated from that body he professed
to possess the spirit of John the Baptist, whose ascetic life he
imitated for a time, living upon nothing but herbs and thereby
gave himself a severe illness. Henceforward his life was spent
moving from place to place, always at first gaining the confidence
of bishops and congregations by his great eloquence and apparent
austerity of manners, but invariably after a time it v/as found
that his practices were not in accordance with his precepts, and
on more than one occasion his immorality was so great that he
had to fly to prevent being arrested. His practices were under
the pretence of imitating the innocence of the paradisaical state,
and of being totally indifferent to material and worldly things,
thereby having a great resemblance to those of the more modern
Agapemonites. In 1650 Labadie embraced the doctrines of the
Reformed Church and was publicly received as a convert at
Montauban, and chosen as pastor of the Protestant church there,
in which capacity he remained for eight years, at the end of
which time he was banished from the town. He then pro-
ceeded to Geneva, but was forced to leave, and went on to the
Walloon Church in Holland. In this new country, where his
evil practices were not known, his commanding eloquence and
apparent strictness of manners procured him a vast number
of followers, amongst whom were some whose learning, abilities,
and rank gave a certain degree of credit and reputation to the
principles he advocated. Of this description was Anna Maria
von Schiirmann, who became one of his firmest adherents, and
followed him first to Middelburg and then to Amsterdam. Her
friends and the philosopher Voetius in vain tried to dissuade her
and pointed out the impropriety of her conduct, but she and a
few other " sisters " insisted upon going to live in his house, and
this was the commencement of what grew into a regular com-

207

A Left- Handed Marriage

munity called "Labadists," At last Labadie propagated such
pernicious theories, morally as well as religiously, that the worthy
burghers of Amsterdam began to be alarmed, and he was again
in danger of being turned out of the country ; but Anna von
Schiirmann wrote to Princess Elizabeth, now abbess of Herford,
and asked her to give a home to the wandering Saint. To this,
unfortunately, the Princess agreed, and the whole community
left Holland for Germany. Their reputation, however, had gone
before them, and in less than a week after their arrival a formal
protest was addressed by the Town Council to the great Elector
Frederick-William. Princess Elizabeth wrote to her cousin
at the same time advancing everything in their favour. In his
answer Frederick-William says : " Most foul reports have
come to us from many different sides touching the life and
conduct of the people in question. All concur in representing
the Labadists as merely outward adherents to the Reformed
religion in order to obtain protection from those states which
really profess it ; and all affirm that in reality and under most
sanctimonious appearances they hold wondrous strange opinions.
They practise among themselves the community of property,
and decidedly advocate the communion of women also ; and
here, even, I do not touch on all the reproaches brought against
these persons."

Labadie died at Altona in the arms of Anna Schiirmann in
1674 when he was about sixty-four years old. After his death
this lady conducted the community to Wiewert, where four
maiden ladies of the family of Sommelsdyck received them, and
two years later she died in extreme poverty, having divided all
she possessed amongst the Labadists. The sect soon dwindled,
and Cleves was the last place where any of them were heard
of It was the recital of all that Princess Elizabeth had done

208

A Left-Handed Marriage

for the Labadists that inspired William Penn with the wish to
make her acquaintance, in hopes that she would help to spread
the doctrines of the Quakers in Germany ; and he and Fox and
Barclay and many others of the Society of Friends went to
Germany and Holland, with a view to propagate their
opinions. Penn and Barclay visited Princess Elizabeth at Herford
for three days, during which time the former held many prayer
meetings, and Princess Elizabeth was at once drawn over to him.
Her closing years were spent very quietly, but to the very last
she kept up her interest in Philosophy and became the friend
of Leibnitz and Malebranche. She died in 1682 at the age
of sixty-two. William Penn wrote a short memorial sketch
of Princess Elizabeth in his celebrated work " No Cross, no
Crown."

Her mother the Queen of Bohemia had died eighteen
years before her, but there appears never to have been much
sympathy between them, and for many years before her death
the Queen of Hearts lived with none of her children about
her. She had the satisfaction, however, of seeing her son, Karl
Ludwig, not only restored to his Sovereignty of the Palatinate
by the Miinster Treaty, but she also lived to see that the
efforts he made for the rehabilitation of his patrimony were
crowned with success, so much so that he gained the name
of " Wiederhersteller " or the "Regenerator." Amongst other
things, assisted by Spinoza, he re-established the former famous
University at Heidelberg, which again became celebrated for
its learning. He also rebuilt the beautiful Castle, which had
fallen into sad decay, and made it, with its magnificent situa-
tion and transcendently lovely view, the most entrancing of
regal residences. All this Karl Ludwig accomplished in the

short space of nine years.

209 o

A Left-Handed Marriage

But if she rejoiced in these measures, his mother deeply
deplored the line he took with regard to affairs in England
Karl Ludwig had spent much of his youth at the Court of
his uncle King Charles I., and at the age of eighteen he alone
accompanied the King on the memorable occasion of the
attempted arrest of the five members of the House of Commons,
which was the beginning of the Civil War. And after this
it is recorded against him that he went over to the Parliament,
and actually condescended to sit in what was called the
" Assembly of Divines at Westminster." His friends tried to
explain away this unnatural conduct by suggesting that it
was the result of a secret agreement between the King and
himself, a conjecture somewhat incredible. Karl Ludwig is
also said to have shown great avarice in monetary dealings
with his mother, whom he left to others to assist. And she
was not altogether satisfied with his matrimonial arrangements,
though in that respect he was perhaps more sinned against
than sinning, or at least there was niuch excuse for the line
he took. When thirty-three years of age he married Charlotte,
daughter of William V., Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel. She was
very handsome, and he was much in love with her, and con-
tinued to be so even after she showed that she never cared
for him. All the ardour of his affection was met with coldness
and bad temper, and she never took the slightest interest in
him or his pursuits, although he was described at the time
of their marriage as having a most attractive personality,
tall and very handsome, with a slender and graceful yet
powerful figure. There is a fine portrait of him by Vandyke,
in which one can trace a great likeness to his handsome
mother. No doubt he had a hot temper and may have
been selfish, but at the same time he was capable of ardent

2IO

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Karl Lldwig, Elector Palatine of the Rhine.

From an Engraving by Hollar, after Vandyck.

■^,

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, 1

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A Left-Handed Marriage

affection. His wife seemed to have no love for any one
but herself; she did not even care for her children, and was
happiest when she was dressing herself up, her vanity being
inordinate. The result was not to be wondered at. Receiving
no sympathy where he ought to have found it, he turned
for consolation to one of his wife's Maids-of-honour, a fair
and gentle Swabian, a girl of eighteen, of high birth and spot-
less reputation. Marie Luise Susanne von Degenfeldt was
the daughter of Christopher Martin, Baron von Degenfeldt,
who had fought under the Austrian and under the Swedish
flag, and her mother was Anna Maria Adelmannin von Adels-
mannfeld. She first acted simply as a peacemaker, and did
her best to try and soothe the Elector and bring about a
better state of things between him and the Electress. Nothing,
however, seemed to avail, and ultimately the sympathy of the
gentle Luise drifted into warmer feelings, which were recipro-
cated by the Elector, but it was an accident that brought
things to a climax. The fiery and impetuous Prince Rupert,
who was staying at Heidelberg with his brother, not suspecting
the state of affairs, and being much attracted by Made-
moiselle von Degenfeldt, wrote her a letter reproaching her
for her coldness towards himself. This letter, which had no
name on it, fell into the hands, not of the young girl for
whom it was intended, but unfortunately into the possession
of the Electress. Now she, we are told, although so cold
in her nature, always imagined that every one was in love
with her, and believing therefore that Prince Rupert's letter
was addressed to her, she sent him an answer in a sisterly
manner. He, doubly horrified at the very awkward mistake,
went immediately to the Electress and explained the matter
to her. She was much mortified, and in her jealous rage there

211

A Left-Handed Marriage

and then dismissed Mademoiselle von Degenfeldt in an insulting
manner. The Elector found the young girl in floods of tears
preparing for her departure, and on hearing her explanation
was furious with his wife, and formally took the young lady
under his protection en tout honneu)\ at the same time vowing
that nothing should ever induce him to live again with the
Electress. He accordingly left Heidelberg and made his
residence at Frankenthal, and at once tried to get a divorce
on the grounds of incompatibility of temper, which in those
days was often done, and it was not difficult to prove that
the Electress had a very bad temper, as she had on more than
one occasion slapped the Elector's face in public. Charlotte
however refused to accede to this arrangement, and the Elector
found himself between two stools, as Mademoiselle von Degen-
feldt, who had gone back to her parents, refused to live with
him without a religious ceremony being pronounced. Mean-
while the most wonderful correspondence was going on between
the lovers, which has been preserved. The Elector wrote all his
letters in Latin, and Luise replied in the same language. Her
letters, though the Latin is not of the best, are the most
interesting and the cleverest; the Elector, it is said, copied
most of his, almost word for word, from some love letters
which appear in a romance dealing of the loves of a certain
Lucretia. Ultimately the divorce was, after some hesitation,
granted by the Diet of Ratisbon on the 17th April 1657,
and on the 6th January 1658 the Elector was married with
the left hand to Luise von Degenfeldt by a Lutheran clergyman,
those marriages being customary in the Protestant courts of
Germany, a custom authorised by Luther and Melancthon.
The marriage took place with the consent of all " les agnats "

and of the Emperor, and the Baroness received the title of

212

Marie Luise Susanxe, Baroxess von Degexfeldt.

Froin a Portrait at Heidelber-:.

A Left-Handed Marriage

Rangrave. Shortly after we are told that the Electress Char-
lotte took up a pistol intending to shoot her rival, but Count
Hohenlohe, one of the Elector's gentlemen, snatched it out
of her hand and called his master. After this the Electress
never again appeared at Court. She appealed to the Emperor,
who counselled her to go and live quietly with her children.^
She did not, however, show any interest in them, and her daughter,
Charlotte Elizabeth, who was two years old at the time of
the separation, was brought up by the Electress Sophia until
she was twelve, when she returned to her father, and remained
under Luise's care till she married, and was always devotedly
attached to her father's second family, much of the corre-
spondence, for which she became so famous in after life, being
addressed to two of the Rangravines, her step-sisters.

Karl Ludwig had a very happy life with his beloved Luise
for over twenty years, but she died on the i8th March 1673, at
the birth of her fourteenth child. He was inconsolable at her
death, and wrote to Princess Sophia extolling the virtues of his
lost love, and said that he never should have his tears dried
except in the sands of Mannheim, when he should rest by the side
of his beloved Ludovica."'^ He survived her seven years. Of
the fourteen children of the Elector's morganatic marriage only
five outlived infancy. Of these Caroline-Elizabeth, called the
Rangravine, married Meinhardt, third Duke of Schomberg and
Duke of Leinster, son of the celebrated Duke of Schomberg,
killed at the battle of the Boyne. Their daughter, Lady
Frederica Schomberg, who married Robert d'Arcy, Earl of

' The Electress Charlotte outlived her rival, and she ultimately settled at
Cassel at the court of her brother.

* There are two portraits of her at Heidelberg, and a medal was struck at her
death.

213

A Left-Handed Marriage

Holdernesse. was the mother of Caroline, Marchioness of Lothian,
whose daughter, Lady Louisa Kerr, married Lord George Lennox
and was the progenitor of the later Dukes of Richmond, who
thus have in their veins the blood of the Electors Palatine, though
it is through a left-handed marriage.

214

THE FAITHFUL WYNDHAMS

"Cleave to the Crown, though it hang on a bush."

—Old Proverb.

The Stuarts as a race, whatever their shortcomings might be,

had, there is no denying, the faculty of endearing themselves to

their followers, and never was loyalty more conspicuous than it

was in the adherents of Charles I. and Charles II.

The name of Wyndham is for ever associated with the

fortunes of the second Charles, and shines pre-eminently as

an example of unsv/erving loyalty. Sir Thomas Wyndham, of

Knutsford, in Somersetshire, son of Sir John Wyndham, of

Felbrigge, in Norfolk, had five sons, and not long before his

death, in 1636, he called them to him, "not having," we are

told, " seen them together for some years before, and discoursed

on the loving peace and prosperity this Kingdom had enjoyed

under its three last monarchs," and went on to say that he

" feared the beautiful garment of peace would shortly be torn

in pieces through the neglect of the magistrates, the general

corruption of manners, and the prevalence of a puritanical

faction which, if not prevented, would undermine the pillars

of the Government." "My sons," he continued, "we have

hitherto seen serene and quiet times, but now prepare yourselves

for cloudy and troublesome. I command you to obey our

gracious Sovereign and in all times adhere to the Crown, and

though the Crown should hang upon a bush, I charge you

forsake it not." When these prophetic words came true, the

215

The Faithful Wyndhams

loyalty of the Wyndham brothers was not found wanting. Four
out of Sir Thomas's five sons fell on the battlefield, fighting
for the Royal cause, and it was reserved for his youngest son,
Francis, also a distinguished soldier, to make his mark as one
of those faithful ones who were instrumental in effecting King
Charles II. 's escape after the battle of Worcester, and who con-
cealed him in his house for eighteen nights. Colonel Francis
Wyndham had already made himself a name by his brave defence
of Dunster Castle in 1645-46, when he sustained a close siege of
about 160 days with a loss of only twenty men. He was
repeatedly asked to submit, but always replied that it was his
intention to keep his charge to the utmost, and that he would
continue se7nper idem^ and he did not give in until the Royalists
were defeated everywhere and he was deprived of all hope of
relief. He then submitted under seven conditions, one of
which deputed that " Colonel Wyndham shall carry with him all
that is properly his, and that which doth properly belong to
Lady Wyndham shall be sent to her."

A propos of Colonel Wyndham's defence of Dunster, the
following romantic story appeared in the Mercurius Academicus,
No. 3, and was universally believed by the Royalists, but
we are afraid that it must be relegated to the limbo of
romance, as facts are somewhat against it ; still we give it for
what it is worth, and the story shows anyhow what manner
of man Colonel Francis Wyndham was for it to have been
generally accepted as true by all those who knew him. The
tale runs thus : —

When Colonel Wyndham was holding Dunster Castle for

the King, the Roundhead General commanding at Taunton

sent him the following message: " If you will deliver up the

castle, you shall have fair quarters; if not, expect no mercy.

216

The Faithful Wyndhams

Your mother (the Parliamentarians had taken Lady Wyndham
prisoner) shall be in front to receive the first fury of your
cannon." Colonel Wyndham, in the spirit of an ancient Spartan,
was said to have answered: "If you doe what you threaten,
you doe the most barbarous and villainous act was ever done.
My mother I honour, but the cause I fight for and the masters
I serve are God and the King. Mother, doe you forgive me,
and give me your blessing, and lett the Rebels answer for spilling
that blood of yours, which I would save with the loss of mine
own, if I had enough for both my master and yourself!" His
mother replied : " Sonne, I forgive thee and pray God to bless
thee for this brave resolution. If I live, I shall love thee better
for it. God's will be done." But mother and son were spared.
As the story goes. Lord Wentworth, Sir Richard Grenvill, and
Colonel Webb came to their assistance, rescued the brave lady,
relieved the fortress, took looo prisoners, and put the Parlia-
mentarians to flight.

Six years later Colonel Francis Wyndham gave still greater
proof of his devotion to the second Charles. He had lately
taken to himself a young wife, Anne, daughter and co-heiress of
Thomas Gerard, of Trent, in Somersetshire, which place he
acquired with his bride, and in September 1651 they were living
there, the dowager Lady Wyndham and her niece Miss Julia
Coningsby^ staying with them at the time. On the i6th of
that month they were all in the depths of despair, having heard
the report of the King's death, when suddenly Lord Wilmot
appeared at the house, with the joyful news that his Majesty
was safe, and furthermore that he was making his way towards
Trent, which he hoped to reach the following day, having been
hiding for four nights at Abbotslegh, the house of Mr. George

^ Daughter of Richard Coningsby of Chapel, Warwickshire.
217

The Faithful Wyndhams

Norton. Colonel Wyndham communicated the precious secret to
three of his servants whose fidelity he could trust, and whose
names, therefore, will live for ever, Henry Peters, Eleanor
Withers, and Joan Halsenoth, any one of whom might easily
have secured the thousand pounds' reward had they betrayed their
King. At early dawn the next day all these individuals were,
as can well be imagined, on the qui vive, but it was arranged
that the rest of the establishment should be sent out of the
way at the time the King was expected. Great was the relief
and great the rejoicing when at ten in the morning of
Wednesday the 17th September they perceived a small cavalcade
appearing in the distance, and soon after saw that it was the
King's party. We have a graphic account of Charles's adventures
from the time he reached Trent till the time he left England,
written'by Mistress Anne Wyndham, the wife of Colonel Francis.
The King as " Will Jackson " arrived disguised as a servant and
riding double-horse with Mrs. Jane Lane behind him and ac-
companied by her relation. Cornet Henry Lascelles. The
important part v/hich Jane Lane had taken in the King's escape,
which is so well known, here came to an end, as she and Mr.
Lascelles returned to Bentley the next morning.

When King Charles approached Trent, Colonel Wyndham
and his wife walked a little way to meet his Majesty, who
called out, " Frank, Frank, how dost thou do ! " Arrived at the
house, Colonel Wyndham at once conducted the King privately
to Mrs. Wyndham's room, which had secret panels communi-
cating with a hiding-place in the shape of a little recess which
had a double floor between the boards in which a man could
lie. The Jesuit Nicholas Owen spent all his time designing
and constructing these "priest holes" in all the chief Roman

Catholic houses in every part of the country, and the one at

218

Madam Axxf. W'vxdham as a Chii-o.

From a Mezzotint at S-Mal/truJield by Cooper, after Wiss'nig.

The Faithful Wyndhams

Trent was his handiwork. The King never stirred from Mrs.
Wyndham's room during the nineteen days he spent under
Colonel Wyndham's roof. His chief occupation, besides cooking
his own meals, was boring holes in coins, which he gave away as
mementoes, having no means of giving anything else. One day
he heard an unusual noise in the neighbourhood followed by the
ringing of the church bells. On asking Colonel Wyndham the
meaning of this he was told that news having been brought of
his death the yokels celebrated their delight by bonfires and
much tippling, finishing up by ringing out the King's knell on
the neighbouring church bells ; to which explanation King
Charles only remarked, " Alas, poor people ! "

After he had been some time in hiding at Trent, King
Charles began to make inquiries as to the best means of pro-
curing a vessel to take him privately to France, and Colonel
Wyndham rode over to Melbury, ten miles off, to ask the help
of Colonel Giles Strangways. He had no success in this en-
deavour, as Sir John, the father of Colonel Giles, said they were
too well known to risk assisting the King to escape ; but he
volunteered the offer of ;/^ioo, which Colonel Wyndham accepted
on behalf of his Majesty. After this Colonel Wyndham and a
Captain Ellesden, formerly a Captain under Charles I. and now
a merchant at Lyme Regis, went to Charmouth and arranged
with one, Stephen Limbry, the master of a coasting vessel, that
he should convey over to France some Royalist gentlemen for
£60, and he took rooms at the inn there, giving out that they
were for a run-away couple, the pair being the King and Miss
Coningsby. Accordingly on the 22nd September King Charles
and her, riding double-horse, left Trent attended by two servants
■ — Lord Wilmot and Peters, and accompanied by Colonel Wynd-
ham. On their route they were met by Captain Ellesden, who

219

The Faithful Wyndhams

received them at a lonely house among the hills in order to wait
for nightfall, when they proposed to enter Charmouth. Here
the King discovered his rank, to his new protector, and presented
him with one of the pieces of foreign gold which he had amused
himself by boring and stringing during his hiding. This coin
was handed down as an heirloom in the Ellesden family, and at
the close of the eighteenth century it was taken to the West
Indies by some descendants of the name of Henvil who settled
there.

At night the little party went on to Charmouth, where
Ellesden took his leave in full confidence that everything had
been securely arranged, but, arrived at the inn, no further news of
Limbry was heard; hour after hour passed and he did not appear.
Lord Wilmot sat up all night in great suspense, whilst Colonel
Wyndham and his servant kept watch in vain on the beach. The
fact was that Limbry 's wife, having discovered her husband's
proposed action, locked him up in his bed-room till it was too
late to fulfil his engagement : " the more he entreated," says
Mrs. Wyndham in her account, " the more her violent passion
increased, breaking forth into such clamours and lamentations
that he feared, if he should any longer contend, both himself and
the gentlemen would be cast away in this storm without ever
going to sea."

At this juncture it was settled that the wisest plan was for
the King to make his way back to Trent and from there try to
devise a fresh programme. Accordingly the party started off on
their return journey and reached Bridport the next day, where
they met with an alarming incident. As they rode into the
inn-yard they perceived they were in the midst of a detachment
of Republican troops who had just arrived there ; and further-
more the ostler almost immediately said to the King that he felt

220

The Faithful Wyndhams

sure he had seen his face before ! Charles, who never lost his
presence of mind and was never undaunted, showed no sign of
alarm, and, after having ascertained from the man that he had
lived at an inn at Exeter close to the house of a Mr. Potter,
quietly remarked, "Friend, you must certainly have seen me at
Mr. Potter's, for I served him above a year." The ostler was
satisfied, and Charles then talked freely to the troopers. Mean-
while the ostler at the inn at Charmouth, where they had just
stayed, had drawn suspicious conclusions from observing that
their horses were kept saddled all night, as well as from the
visits of Colonel Wyndham to the sea-shore, and his suspicions
were redoubled after he had taken one of the horses which had
lost a shoe to the neighbouring forge. Hammet, the blacksmith,
a very shrewd fellow, instantly remarked, " This horse has three
shoes all set in different counties, and one in Worcestershire."
The ostler went off to communicate with Westley, the Noncon-
formist minister ; but, luckily for King Charles, that worthy was
in the middle of a lengthy 'discourse, which delayed his arrival
at the inn. When he did get there he thought to entrap the
hostess into a confession : " Why, how now, Margaret, why,
Charles Stuart lay last night at your house, and kissed you at
his departure, so that now you cannot be a maid of honour."
The woman got very angry and told him he was a scurvy-
conditioned man to go about trying to bring her and her house into
trouble. " But," said she, " if I thought it was the King, as you
say, I would think the better of my lips all the days of my
life ; and so, Mr. Parson, get you out of my house, or else I'll
get those shall kick you out." The minister then went to
a magistrate who, however, pooh-poohed his story. When at
last the suspicious circumstances reached the ears of Captain
Macy, the Republican officer commanding the nearest piquet,

221

The Faithful Wyndhams

he galloped off in pursuit of the fugitives, but missed them, and
they arrived safely at a village called Broad Windsor. Here
they put up for the night at an inn kept by persons whom Colonel
Wyndham knew. Luckily they were lodged in the upper
storey, for shortly after their arrival a company of forty troopers
came in to be billeted for the night. Before the break of
day, after consultation with Colonel Wyndham, the King started
on his return to Trent, where he arrived that evening, and
remained in his old hiding-place till the 6th of October.
Meanwhile the piquet from Charmouth, that had missed them
en route, had gone to Pilsdon, the house of Sir John Wyndham,
Colonel Francis's uncle, and not only did they search the
whole house, but insisted that one of the young ladies was
King Charles in disguise ! The same day that King Charles
got back to Trent, there came to dine with the Wyndhams
Mr. Edward Hyde of West Hatch, who had married Etheldred
Gerard, Mrs. Wyndham's sister. This gentleman mentioned
casually that he had seen the day before Colonel Robert Phelips,
who was living in Salisbury, his beautiful old house Montacute
being sequestered, and Colonel Wyndham thereupon suggested
that Colonel Phelips might be a useful person to consult as
well as Mr. John Coventry, son of Lord Coventry, Keeper
of the Great Seal, who also lived in the Close at Salisbury.
The King agreed and no time was lost. Lord Wilmot went
there the next day, and had his interviews at the King's
Arms, the landlord being a staunch loyalist, with the result
that Colonel Phelips started at once for Southampton, and
arranged with a man that he should carry over to France in his
vessel a friend of his, the terms to be £^o. But again the
King was doomed to disappointment, the arrangement falling
through in consequence of the barque being requisitioned

222

The Faithful Wyndhams

to carry provisions and ammunition to the rebel soldiers in
Jersey.

The coast of Sussex was now suggested, and the next move
was made with the assistance of Dr. Henchman, afterwards
Bishop of London. Communication was set up with Colonel
Counter, who lived near Chichester, and King Charles left
Trent House after a stay of altogether nineteen days, saying
good-bye to all the Wyndham party, excepting Miss Juliana
Coningsby, who went with him, riding double-horse as before,
to Salisbury, where she also parted from him. Mrs. Wyndham's
account consequently ceases here, but the party at Trent were
soon after rejoiced to hear that his Majesty managed, with
the assistance of Colonel Gounter and others, to reach Shore-
ham, from whence he crossed over to France, landing at
Fecamp.

At the Restoration his friends at Trent were not forgotten
by King Charles. He sent Colonel Francis Wyndham a gift
of ;^iooo "for the buying of a jewel for his great and
eminent services," and settled on him a pension of £600 a
year with reversion to his heirs, besides which he was shortly
after created a Baronet. Lady Wyndham, his mother, also
had a pension of ^^400, and her niece, Juliana Coningsby,
who married Amias Hext of Redlinch, one of ;/^200.^ Eleanor
Withers and Joan Halsenoth, the two maids who waited on
the King at Trent, received a gift of £100 each and a pension
of £50.

Sir Francis Wyndham died in 1676, but his wife
survived till 1698. With the death of Sir Francis's great-
grandson, the fourth and last Baronet of Trent, the estate

' These pensions ceased at the abdication of James II.
223

The Faithful Wyndhams

devolved upon the sister of the latter Francis Wyndham,
who married Henry Bromley, Lord Montford. This title
also becoming extinct in 1851, the present Earl Cadogan
is, through the female line, the representative of the faithful

Wyndhams.

224

A LOYAL HEART

No more loyal heart ever beat than that of Sir Nicholas Crispe,
and even after death its undying memories were kept alive
for upwards of a century in accordance with the weird bequest
in his will.

Sir Nicholas had erected in Hammersmith Church a ceno-
taph of black and white marble, " as a grateful commemora-
tion of that glorious martyr King Charles the First of Blessed
Memory," and on his deathbed he directed that his heart
might be placed in an urn at his master's feet, and devised
a sum of money to provide wine, which he desired should
be poured over it annually to refresh it ; his wishes were
strictly observed for over a hundred years, until the poor
heart was said to be so shrivelled as practically not to exist.
The monument and the urn are still to be seen in the south-
west corner of the church, and on the pedestal of the urn
is inscribed : " Within this urn is enclosed the heart of Sir
Nicholas Crispe, Knight and Baronet, a loyal sharer in the
sufferings of his late and present Majesty. He first settled
the trade of gold from Guinea, and then built the Castle
of Coromantin. He died 28th July 1665, aged sixty-seven."

Born in 1598, Nicholas Crispe came of a long line of

merchant princes who had amassed large fortunes in Bread

Street, Cheapside, and had held for successive generations the

position of Sheriff of London. At the death of his father,

Nicholas found himself heir to a great estate, and he further

225 p

A Loyal Heart

made a considerable addition to his fortune by his marriage
with Anne, daughter and co-heir of Edward Prescot, Salter
of London. Being a man of active and enterprising genius,
he did not confine himself to the ordinary routine of traders,
but occupied himself with new inventions and brought his
ingenuity into much practical utility. His inventions as to
paper-mills, powder-mills and water-mills all came into use,
and he is said to have been the inventor of the art of making
bricks as now practised. Some of his proposed improvements
he was not able to carry into effect. In 1656, John Evelyn
in his " Diary " says : " Sir Nicholas Crispe came to treate with
me about his vast designe of a Mole to be made for ships
in part of my grounds at Sayes Court " (Deptford). Evelyn
went to London about it, and some months later the Duke
of York, the Duke of Ormond, and other Lords visited his
grounds in connection with this project, which, however, was
laid aside as "a fancy of Sir Nicholas Crispe." Pepys talks
of it, and says that Nicholas Crispe "proposed making a wett-
dock to hold 200 sail of ships ; " but adds, " it seems, however,
that the ground was long since promised to Sir Richard Brown,
one of the Clerks of the Council."

Sir Nicholas's chief enterprise was on the coast of Guinea,
where he with five others ^ had the exclusive right of trading,
this being granted to him by King Charles L in 1632. He
there established the fort called the Castle of Coromantine on
the Gold Coast, and he was so successful that he and his
associates made a clear /|50,ooo a year, and carried on a trade
with Holland, France, Spain, Italy, Norway, Muscovy, and

* The five others were Sir Job Harvey, Sir John Wolstenhohn, Sir John Jacob,
Sir John Harrison, and Sir John Shaw. Pepys describes meeting the whole six
at Mr. Shand's, the merchant, and says they were "very good company."

226

SiK Nicholas Ckispe, Bart.

From an old Print at S'u'allo2i;/ield.

A Loyal Heart

Turkey, which supplied the King with nearly ;/^ioo,coo a year,
besides keeping his ships ready for service.

Nicholas Crispe was one of the King's Customs farmers,
and was knighted in 1641. Elected member for Winchelsea,
he was expelled from Parliament as a Monopolist in 1641.

As the times became more troublous his devotion to his
Royal master King Charles I. became more intensified, and he
was wont to say that he "honoured and revered him beyond all
other beings, honoured him as a King, loved him as a master."
When he saw King Charles in need of money, he raised, with
the assistance of his partners, the sum of ;^200,ooo upon a
short notice.

Lloyd gives us a very high idea of Sir Nicholas's activity as
well as of the signal services he rendered the King. All the
correspondence and supplies of arms (during the Civil War)
which were procured by the Queen in Holland and by the
King's agents in Denmark were consigned to his care, and he
had, we are told, " an incomparable address in bringing any-
thing to bear that he had once contrived." In matters of
secrecy and danger he seldom trusted any hands but his own,
and to facilitate this he made use of all kinds of disguises. A
writer says of him, "A polypus puts not on more shapes to
deceive the fisher than Sir Nicholas did to escape those that
laid snares for him." Letters of consequence he carried in the
guise of a porter ; when he wanted intelligence he would be at
the water-side with a basket of flounders upon his head, and
often passed between London and Oxford in the dress of a
butter-woman on horseback between a pair of panniers. His
life at this time was a most adventurous one, and his hair-
breadth escapes rivalled those of his modern prototype, " The

Scarlet Pimpernel." He went through so many perils by land

227

A Loyal Heart

and by water that he seemed to have a charmed life. He was
the principal author of that well-laid design for publishing the
King's Commission of Array at London, which was defeated by
another design that Edmund Waller the poet (who, by the way,
was related to Sir Nicholas) through fear betrayed. By the
discovery of this business Sir Nicholas found himself obliged to
declare openly the course he meant to take, and having at his
own expense raised a Regiment of Horse for the King's service
in 1643, he put himself at the head of it and distinguished
himself as remarkably in his military as he had ever done in his
civil capacity, and behaved with the greatest gallantry. He was,
however, in September of this year the cause of a most unfor-
tunate affair. Sir James Enyon, Bart., who was also a volunteer
in the Royal cause and a friend of Sir Nicholas, had a quarrel
with him at their quarters ; they fought a duel, and Sir Nicholas
killed Sir James. He was brought before a court-martial and
most honourably acquitted, but the fatal result made an in-
delible impression on the mind of Sir Nicholas, who ever after
wore mourning, except in the field of battle, when he cherished
the hope of being united to his friend by a fortunate bullet, and
through the remainder of his life at every return of the
anniversary he closed his room in darkness and devoted himself
to fasting and prayer.

In 1 645 his property was sequestrated by the Parliament and
his house in Bread Street ordered to be sold. Furthermore, the
Parliament directed that ^6000 a year should be taken from
his estates and those of Lord Culpeper to make up the re-
mainder of the pension which it had resolved to grant the
Elector Palatine. Sir Nicholas then recommenced in business
with the same spirit and the same success as before, and he
was therefore able to contribute largely for the relief of Charles

228

A Loyal Heart

11. and greatly helped General Monk in the Restoration, after
wh,ch he was re-instated as "Farmer of the Customs" and
made a Baronet. It was shortly after this that a chartered
company was formed prosecuting the African trade under the
name of 'The Company of Royal Adventurers of England " •
but before long war broke out with Holland, which was it^
death-blow, and in 1667 the Royal Adventurers were left with
only one fort-that at Cape Coast Castle; Coromantine and
.ts dependent factories fell into the hands of the Dutch, owing
to the successes of the great De Ruyter, and the Company!
exhausted by the expenses of the war, surrendered their Charter
to the Crown. Sir Nicholas did not live long enough to see
the complete downfall of his favourite enterprise, for he died in
1666, brmgmg his eventful life to a close peaceably in his bed
at his house m Hammersmith, respected and beloved by all
H.S body was interred with his ancestors in the Parish Church
of St. M, dred in Bread Street, Cheapside, where there was at the
upper end of the chancel a most beautiful glass window, placed
there by h,m, and in one compartment of which appeared
portraits of h.mself and his wife and children; but this church
was one of the many entirely destroyed in the Great Fire
H,s heart, as we have said, was taken to St. Paul's Church
Hammersmith. '

Sir Nicholas's house at Hammersmith went through almost
as many varied changes as he did himself It was first of all
sold to Prmce Rupert, who gave it to Margaret Hughes the
actress, who lived there ten years ; then it was purchased in '169%
by Timothy Lannoy, Esq., a man of very old Huguenot family
who made a fortune as "a scarlet dyer." Fron, him it passed
to George Bubb Dodington, Lord Melcombe, who left it to
Thomas Wyndham. Subsequently it was the property of Mrs

A Loyal Heart

Sturt, who gave there the celebrated entertainments honoured
by royalty and the elite of fashion, tempo George III. In 1792
it was sold to the Margrave of Brand enburg-Anspach, and
was reigned over for twenty years by that wonderful lady,
formerly Lady Craven, and nee Berkeley, who became his wife.
She continued to entertain there, and gave dramatic representa-
tions. Not last in notoriety was its final occupant, Caroline,
wife of George IV., who in its walls tried to keep a small court,
pending her trial in the House of Lords, and died there in 1821.
Soon after this house, so replete with interesting associations,
was pulled down, and the materials sold by auction, and a large
factory now occupies the site.

No lineal descendant of Sir Nicholas Crispe in the male line
now exists, the Baronetcy becoming extinct at the death, in
1740, without issue, of his grandson. Sir Charles Crispe, fifth
Bart. ; but several collaterals of his house were remarkable even
in their day, the one perhaps most known to modern readers
being Samuel Crispe of Chessington, a man of letters and
fashion, the *' Daddy Crispe " of Miss Burney's " Letters," and
the friend of Doctor Johnson. In the female line many families
can trace their descent from he of the Loyal Heart.

230

z S

C2 ?•

THE BRAZIER AND THE EARL

In the city of Bath, where the medieval Roman baths, said to
exceed in interest anything of the kind, excepting possibly the
baths of Caracalla at Rome, are still existing, is to be seen at the
entrance from the King's Bath to the Queen's Bath a massive
ring on which is inscribed the follow-
ing words : —

"I John Revet ^ His Majestys
Brazier At 50 Y';? of Age of July
1674 Received Cure of A True
Palsie From Head to Foot on One
Side. Thanks to God." -

Fourteen years before, at the time
of the Restoration, when this John
Rivett was living at the Dial, near

Holborn Conduit, an action was brought against him by
Jerome Weston, second Earl of Portland, for the restitution
of a brass statue of King Charles I., which had formerly be-
longed to his father and which he consequently claimed as his
property. The history of this statue is a curious one.

Richard Weston, the first Earl of Portland, was a remarkable
man constantly employed in diplomatic matters by King James I.,

' Rivett was his real name. Mr. Rivett, M.P. for Derby in the last century,
claimed descent from him, and the present Rivett-Carnacs are said to be the
same family.

^ Early in the seventeenth century many persons left some memorial of the
benefits they had received from the waters of Bath. This mark of gratitude
assumed the form of large copper or brass rings fixed in the wall of the bath and
inscribed with the name of the donor, and they served at the same time the
purpose of helping the bathers to keep their feet.

231

The Brazier and the Earl

and was rewarded by very considerable grants of money and
raised to the peerage as Baron Weston of Nayland. With
James's successor he became a still greater favourite, and King
Charles I., in consequence of his great financial abilities and his
zeal for the Royal Prerogative, made him Lord High Treasurer.
Honours v/ere multiplied fast upon him ; he was elected one of
the Knights of the Garter and created Earl of Portland, and had
large estates bestowed upon him, including Putney Park, formerly
called Mostlake Park. Here he built himself a stately mansion,
which he called Roehampton House, where he lived in great
state and magnificence.

Furthermore the King arranged a marriage for his eldest son,
Jerome, with his Majesty's cousin, Lady Frances Stuart,
daughter of Esme, Duke of Lennox, which marriage took place
in 1632 in Lord Portland's private chapel at Roehampton
House, lately consecrated by Laud, Bishop of London. The
King gave away the bride in person, and Ben Jonson wrote the
" Epithalamion," which finishes with the following lines : —

" See ! now the Chapel opens, where the King
And Bishop stand to consummate the rites ;
The holy Prelate prays, then takes the ring.
Asks first ' Who gives her ? ' — ' I, Charles,' then he plights
One in the other's hand
Whilst they both stand
Hearing their charge, and then
The solemn choir cries, ' Joy ' and thev return ' Amen ! ' "

In 1633 Lord Portland gave a commission to the celebrated
Hubert Le Sueur ^ for an equestrian statue in brass of King
Charles I., which he proposed erecting in front of Roehampton
House. There is a memorandum in the Record Office of a

^ Le Sueur, who was a Huguenot refugee, had been a pupil of John of
Bologna.

232

tSl££rJL„ , - .^g?^-y^v •■■'-??" vii^py?^^^.£ .:•". ^tv^^T-ivt^i-. n-v.ytf -;-

IfV.VI. WPI V..|

Jerome Westox, Second Earl of Portland, K.G.

From an Engraving at Swallowjield by Hollar, after VanJyck.

The Brazier and the Earl

draft of the agreement between Lord Portland and Le Sueur.
The statue was to cost £600, which was to include the setting
up, and it was to be completed in eighteen months. Lord
Portland desired that it should be a foot larger than life-size,
and the sculptor was to " take advice of his Majesty's riders of
greate horses, as well for the shape of the horse and action as
for the graceful shape and action of his Majesty's figure on the
same." The statue was cast at Covent Garden "near the
Church" in 1633. Polnitz says by the same workmen that
cast the horse of Henri IV. at Paris. The Lord High
Treasurer died soon after its completion. Notwithstanding
all the benefits and favours bestowed upon him, the latter part
of his life was anything but a happy one. The natural haughti-
ness and irritability of his temper became greatly increased by
a complication of illnesses which caused him acute sufferings.
His wife and daughters were avowed Catholics, and his own
inclination tended that way, all of which added to his un-
popularity, and at the time of his death it was said that no one
regretted him excepting King Charles, whose regard continued
undiminished, and who sat by his dying bedside till the end,
though the ordeal was almost unbearable. Lord Portland was
buried with great honours in Winchester Cathedral in the
Guardian-Angel Chapel, which was converted into a chapel for
the Weston family, and where there is a fine recumbent figure
of him in bronze by Le Sueur. By the King's orders the whole
court went into mourning for him on Palm Sunday. Richard,
Lord Portland, left many sons and daughters. Benjamin
Weston, his fourth son, married Elizabeth, Countess of Angle-
sey, and from their daughter, who married Sir Charles Shelley,
Bart., are descended the Russells of Swallowfield, where there
is a very fine portrait of Lord Portland by M. Jansen Mirevelt.

'^22

The Brazier and the Earl

Jerome Weston succeeded his father as second Earl of
Portland, and held two of his appointments, Captain-General
of the Isle of Wight and Lord-Lieutenant of Hampshire, which
were lucrative posts in those days. The latter one he held
conjointly with his brother-in-law James, Duke of Lennox and
Richmond, but in 1642, when Portsmouth declared for the
King, Lord Portland was displaced by the Parliament and
committed to the Tower on the ground that he favoured
Popery, and he was also accused of too great expenditure in
entertainments and in the drinking of loyal toasts. The prin-
cipal inhabitants of the Island drew up a petition in favour of
their " noble and much honoured and beloved Captain and
Governor," and stated that not only was he a good Protestant,
but that there was not one Papist in the Isle of Wight. On
the other hand, the lower orders, led by Moses Read, Mayor
of Newport, declared in favour of the Parliament, and the
latter received orders from it to seize the fortress of Carisbrooke,
secure Lady Portland and her five children, who were living
there, and other relations who had taken shelter with her, as
well as Colonel Brett, the Warden. Accordingly Read marched
upon Carisbrooke with the Militia and four hundred sailors.
The garrison of the Castle did not exceed twenty men, but
Lady Portland would not surrender excepting upon honourable
terms. With a lighted match in her hand she walked deliberately
to one of the bastions, declaring she would fire the first cannon
at the foe. Moses Read was astounded ; he expected no resist-
ance— but women must have been made of sterner stuff in those
days than now, for we doubt if any fair Countess would at the
present day be found to defy the enemy as did Frances, Countess
of Portland, unless indeed it were another still fairer Frances!

Moses Read agreed to come to terms with the bold

234

Frances Stuakt, 2.\i) Colxtkss of Pohtland, nAuonTHH of I--s\ik Sti-aht,

Dlkk of Lknnox.
(From an cnoravino at SwallouHeld by Hollar, after X'andyck)

The Brazier and the Earl

Countess, and the Castle was surrendered on conditions. This
episode was depicted in the Pageant held at Carisbrooke in the
summer of 1907, but in the accounts of it given in the papers
the heroine was incorrectly described as " Duchess " of Portland.-^
The following year Lord Portland was denounced by his
cousin, that turncoat Edmund Waller the poet, as being privy
to the association in favour of the King known as " Waller's
Plot." He was, however, soon discharged, but his estate re-
mained under sequestration, and he lived in retirement until
the Restoration. And now comes the curious adventures of
the brass statue of King Charles, which had been erected by
the first Earl. In " Domestic and State Papers " we find in the
Reports of the Committee for the advancement of money, that
"on the nth September 1644 the Statue of the King on horse-
back in brass at Roehampton House is to be sold by the candle
towards the Earl of Portland's assessment," When the day of
the sale arrived, John Rivett, the late King's brazier, to whom
we have already alluded, appeared on the scene, and, pretending
that the metal would be most useful to him in his trade, bought
it. He was given strict orders to break it up, which he agreed
to do, and soon after drove a thriving trade by selling to
Royalists small articles of brass, such as knives and forks
and various handles, &c,, supposed to be made by him from the
metal of the statue, and which the buyers valued as mementoes
of their murdered King. Their Royal sentiment, however, was
misplaced, for the astute brazier, foreseeing better times, did
not break up the statue, but hid it away safely in his cellar !
and when the Restoration came he proudly produced it.
Jerome, Earl of Portland, then thought it should be his and

' The Bentincks, Dukes of Portland, have of course nothing to do with
the Westons, Earls of Portland.

'^35

The Brazier and the Earl

laid claim to it, and in the Convention Parliament of May 1660
he petitioned that, as the Courts of Law were shut, the House
would order it to be protected until his title to it was decided.
In July of the same year complaint was made that John Rivett,
brazier, refused to deliver to the Earl of Portland the statue,
and consequently a replevin was served on the said statue. A
great deal of litigation ensued between the Earl and the brazier.
Apparently John Rivett established his claim, for he presented
the statue to King Charles II., who had it set up at Charing
Cross by an order from the Earl of Danby in 1674. It was
placed on a pedestal, generally stated to be the work of Grinling
Gibbons, but also attributed to Sir Christopher Wren, whose
work it resembles and who was Surveyor-General of the works
at the time. The carvings on each side, which are chiefly
heraldic, have been much destroyed by our climate. Waller
celebrated the erection of this statue in a well-known sonnet
with a most courtly panegyric, while Andrew Marvell made it
the subject of a clever satire. Horace Walpole, who observes
that "the commanding grace of the figure and the exquisite
form of the horse are striking, even to the most unpractised
eye," is not correct in its history as given in his " Anecdotes of
Painting," &:c., inasmuch as he attributes the order for the
statue to Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel. The sword is
a modern one ; the original one fell to the ground with its
appendages in 1810, the belt having given way ; it was replaced,
but finally disappeared about the time of Queen Victoria's Coro-
nation, when the scaffolding erected about the statue afforded
an easy manner of carrying off the sword. Shortly after it found
its way into the so-called Museum of the notorious Captain
D , where it was carefully numbered and labelled ! For-
merly on Restoration Day the statue was regularly decorated

236

Jhro.me Weston, Second Earl of Portland, K.G.

From a Portrait at Swallo-afield by Mirevett.

The Brazier and the Earl

with oak boughs, which has now given place to wreaths and
flower tokens, placed there by members of " The White Rose
Society " and other admirers of the Martyr King, who flock to
Trafalgar Square on the 29th May.

After the Restoration Jerome, Lord Portland, constantly
attended in Parliament, but he died in 1662-63 at Ashley
House, near Walton-on-Thames, and was buried in Walton
Church, where there is a slab to his memory. He was succeeded
by his only son, Charles, third Earl of Portland, who went as a
volunteer with the Duke of York when he took the command
of the English fleet against the Dutch, and was killed in action
off Lowestoft, fighting most valiantly. Earl Jerome's four
daughters all became nuns in the convent of the Poor Clares
at Rouen, so that their widowed mother, Frances, Countess of
Portland, whose early life had been so brilliant, found herself
alone, and she had the misfortune to outlive the dynasty of the
Stuarts, and to see the honours of her father's and her husband's
families bestowed on strangers.^ Her three brothers, Lords
John, Bernard, and George Stuart, all fell fighting for King
Charles. Lord George left one son, whose wife was " La Belle
Stuarr." She had no children, so the Dukedom of Lennox and
Richmond expired in 1672. Her only son having also died
fighting for his country, the Earldom of Portland became ex-
tinct in 1688 at the death of his brother-in-law Thomas, fourth
Earl of Portland.

During her long widowhood, Frances, Countess of Portland,
was allowed the rents of the Portland estates in the Fens, and
the Crown granted her a pension of ;^iooo a year. She died
in 1693, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

' In 1675 Charles Lennox, son of King Charles II. and Louise de Keroualle,
was made Duke of Richmond and Lennox, and in 1689 Hans WilHam Bentinck,
a Dutch gentleman, was created Duke of Portland by William III.

THE MERCHANT OF THE RUBY
AND THE WHITE ROSE

" The rage of malice
Conjures fresh spirits with the spell of York."

" No Plantagenet, by'r lady.
By red rose or by white."

— Ford.

That history repeats itself is a trite saying, but there is no
truer one, and especially do we find it so in the matter of false
claimants.

The greatest impostor of modern times/ the Tichborne
Claimant, had his prototype in the fifteenth century in the
person of Perkin Warbeck, who for eight years personated the
young Duke of York, son of Edward IV. There were many
points of resemblance between the two pretenders ; in each case
they had their " greatness thrust upon them " ; in each it was a
case of " Cherchez la femme," and both were backed by a
woman to spite others. We even find " Bogle " ^ in the fifteenth
century, in the shape of one John Hayes, who had been a
servant of Clarence and who primed Warbeck with circum-
stantial details of places and persons, which, we are told,
" seemed very convincing first of all to the rude and barbarous
people of Ireland, and afterwards to men of wisdom and high

' The Times called the Tichborne trial " the most celebrated of celebrated
causes."

* Bogle was the old black servant of the Tichborne family whom Arthur
Orton met at Sydney and from whom he obtained so much information.

238

The Merchant of the Ruby

nobility." Warbeck also claimed the evidence of three marks
on his body which those who had known the Duke of York
in early days could vouch for. Furthermore, there was the
analogy that, just as in modern times, many who did not go
so far as to say " the claimant " was Roger Tichborne, still clung
to the belief that he was a relation, probably du cote gauche^
and pleaded family likeness, so in the fifteenth century many
held that Perkin Warbeck was a natural son of Edward IV.,
and traced a resemblance to the handsome King. Amongst the
various authors who believed in Warbeck's pretensions were
Carte, Laing, Bayley, and notably Horace Walpole. On the
other hand, all early historians, as well as Sir Thomas More,
Lord Bacon, Hume, Lingard, Sharon Turner, &c., testified to
his imposture ; but the real history of Perkin Warbeck has only
lately been satisfactorily traced from contemporary documents
and official archives, and that learned historian Gairdner has
brought forward such convincing evidence as to render it now
almost impossible for any one to have a doubt upon the
subject.

Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy, sister of Edward IV. and
widow of Charles le Temeraire, whom Bacon describes as
having the character of a man with the malice of a woman, bore
a mortal hatred to the House of Lancaster and personally to
King Henry VII. Determining to set up a claimant for the
throne of England, she had employed agents in Flanders to
search for a likely youth, who was to be both handsome and
graceful. At last they came upon one who seemed to have the
desired requisites and brought him to the Duchess, who at once
settled that he was most suitable for her purpose. Pierrequin
Warbecque (as he signed himself) was the son of a barber
of Tournay in Flanders, one Jehan Warbecque (said to be a

239

The Merchant of the Ruby

converted Jew) and his wife Catherine Faron. He had been in

service for several years in Antwerp and at Middelburg under

different masters, and, having been away from home for a long

time, it was considered that it would be less easy to trace him.

His age and looks were just right, and he was very intelligent.

It remained only therefore to continue his education, and to

prime him with the requisite information to carry on the

imposture. For this purpose the astute Duchess thought he

had best be out of the way of observation, so she arranged with

Lady Brampton that he should go with her to Portugal. Lady

Brampton was the wife of Sir Edward Brampton, a merchant of

London and Portugal, who was a godson of Edward IV., and he

and his family were zealous Yorkists. One, Stephen Frion, was

sent with Perkin as his secretary and tutor, and, being naturally

clever, the Flemish youth soon made rapid strides in foreign

languages and also in the history of his newly invented family.

After spending about a year in Portugal, he entered the service

of a Breton merchant, who took him to Ireland, and it was in

the autumn of 1491, when he was about seventeen years of age,

that Perkin Warbeck first landed at Cork. The citizens insisted

on doing him honours as a member of the House of York,

John Walters, who was three times Mayor of Cork, being the

prime mover. At first they said he was the son of Clarence,

but this he denied, and even took an oath to the contrary before

the Mayor. Then they said he was a bastard son of Richard

III., but this honour he disclaimed. Finally they insisted that

he was the Duke of York, son of King Edward IV., commonly

supposed to have been murdered in the Tower, and they bade

him not fear to assume the character, as they were determined to

be revenged upon the King of England, and they assured him

of the support of the Earls of Desmond and Kildare. " And

240

The Merchant of the Ruby

so," said Perkin (in his Confession), " against my will they
taught me what I should do and say."

He stayed in Cork many months, and then Charles VIII.,
King of France, delighted to have an opportunity of hampering
the King of England, sent over two envoys to Ireland to invite
him to his court, promising him a warm welcome and his
protection. Perkin accordingly went to France, where he was
received as a Royal Prince, lodged in splendid apartments, and
given a guard of honour commanded by Le Sieur de Concres-
sault. He was joined by Sir George Nevill with a number of
disaffected Yorkists ; but peace between France and England
being declared soon after, Perkin was no longer wanted as a
tool by the French King, and, dreading that he might be given
up to the King of England, the pretender withdrew to the Low
Countries, where the Duchess of Burgundy recognised him as
her nephew, introduced him to her court, ordered him a
guard of honour, and gave him the title of " Rose Blanche
d'Angleterre."

In one of Henry VII. 's letters, written to Sir Gilbert Talbot
at this time, the King says : —

" Not forgetting the grete malice that the Lady Margarete
of Burgoigne bereth continually gainst us, as she sheweth lately
in sending hider of a feigned boye . . . and now the persever-
ance of the same, her malice by th' untrue contriving eftsones
of another fayned lad called Perkin Warbeck, etc."

The first-mentioned " feigned boye " was Lambert Symnel,
the son of a tradesman at Oxford, who about five years before
had gone to Ireland and personated Edward Plantagenet, Earl
of Warwick, and who was actually crowned in Christchurch
Cathedral, Dublin, by the Bishop of Meath as Edward VI.,

241 Q

The Merchant of the Ruby-
King of England ! The Duchess of Burgundy had then sent
over to Ireland 2000 Germans, headed by Martin Schwarz,
to assist the impostor, who on the strength of this made a
descent on England, where he was defeated at Stoke and taken
prisoner, and, as every one knows, his life was spared, and he was
made a turn-spit in the Royal kitchen. The King pardoned
the Earl of Kildare and other nobles who had assisted Symnel ^
and invited them the year following to a banquet at Greenwich,
on which occasion their ci-devant King brought the dishes in
from the kitchen.

One wonders that, so soon after the ignominious ending of
Lambert Symnel's deception, a similar impostor should make
any footing at all ; but the fact that he was recognised by his
aunt, who was not likely to be deceived, weighed with many
persons who were only too glad to be convinced that Perkin was
what he pretended. " Qui vult decipi, decipatur."

Emboldened by success, Perkin Warbeck next applied for the
support of Spain, and wrote in 1493 to Queen Isabella. In his
letter he said that he had on his side the Kings of France,
Denmark, and Scotland, the Duchess of Burgundy, Maximilian,
the King of the Romans, and his son the Archduke of Austria
and the Duke of Saxony. At the same time he gave the Queen
an account of his adventures. Ferdinand and Isabella were not
taken in by his story, and Warbeck's letter v/as docketed :
"From Richard, who calls himself King of England." We
next hear of the impostor being at Vienna with Duke Albert
of Saxony for the funeral of the Emperor Frederick III., when
he was given a high place in the procession to the church.
After this the King of the Romans, who had a grudge

^ After talking to them about their rebelHon, Henry said to them, " My
Masters of Ireland, you will crown apes at length ! "

242

The Merchant of the Ruby

against Henry VII., took, him again to the Low Countries
and publicly acknowledged him as King of England. Now for
the first time King Henry appears to have taken some steps
against Warbeck ; he sent Garter-King-of-Arms to remonstrate
with Maximilian and the Duchess of Burgundy, ordering him
to show them who he really was and publicly to proclaim his
origin. This did not, however, prevent them from giving their
support to the impostor, who had a bodyguard of twenty archers
bearing the badge of the White Rose and hung out his arms,
three leopards and three fleur-de-lys. However, when the
Treaty of Commerce between England and the Netherlands was
signed, it contained an express stipulation that the latter country
should not harbour any English rebels, so Perkin Warbeck had
to leave. He next turned his course once again to Ireland,
hoping to receive there the same support as before. This visit,
which is mentioned in a MS. in the British Museum, does not
appear to have been so satisfactory, and receiving little encourage-
ment he soon after proceeded to Scotland. King James IV., or
rather his Regency, welcomed any pretext for a quarrel with the
King of England, and they had long held secret communication,
both with the Duchess of Burgundy and with Perkin Warbeck
himself, v/ho on these occasions went by the name of " The
Merchant of the Ruby." As early as the year 1401, we have
found the following entry in the Scotch Treasurer's books :
" Given at the King's command to an Englishman called Edward
Ormond that brought letters forth of Ireland fra King Edward's
son and the Earl of Desmond 9 lb." King James received
Warbeck publicly at Stirling in November 1495, addressing him
as cousin, and the impostor was once again given royal honours
and was styled Prince Richard of England, Duke of York.
And now his success culminated when the Scottish King gave

243

The Merchant of the Ruby

him in marriage his young cousin, Lady Katherine Gordon,
daughter of the second Earl of Huntly and granddaughter of
James I., said to be the most beautiful maiden in Scotland.

The marriage took place about the middle of January
1496, probably at Holyrood, and in the treasurer's accounts
of Scotland at Register House, Edinburgh, we find Royal
payments on this occasion including " a spousing gown."
Perkin was given an allowance as well as a retinue free of
expense.

King James made a brief expedition across the Border
in his support, but did not follow it up, and withdrew his
assistance soon after. He, however, ordered a vessel to be
fitted out at some expense to convey him and his beautiful
consort away, and they sailed from Ayr with a few followers
in July 1497.^ One author states that Warbeck had on
board his two children, but this is probably not correct, or,
if it was so, they must have died as infants, as there is no
other notice of them. In the accounts of the Lord High
Treasurer of Scotland there are minute entries of the articles
provided for the voyage, including a " see goune of Rowane
tannee " for the Duchess of York.

Perkin and Lady Katherine went first to Cork, where they
stayed a month or more. The impostor was then joined by
Maurice Fitzgerald, Earl of Desmond, with a force of 24,000
men and laid siege to the loyal city of Waterford — " Urbs
in tacta," or the untarnished city.

He next sailed for Cornwall, where, after various vicissi-
tudes, he and Lady Katherine landed on the 7th September
1 497 at Whitesand Bay, near Penzance. They were admitted

' Treas. Ace, July 4, 1497. "Memorials of Henry \'II.," by Bergen roth ;
"Venetian Calendar," i. No. 755.

244

£=C<

y"' ^tri'U t /r^f^Ki yi-r /i v^» l>^ y'^j^ ;^.

^ ^/^^/'""-'V^ /*^ l-^?^-

Perkix Wahhhck.

I'rom an old Print.

The Merchant of the Ruby

into St. Michael's Mount by the monks, who were favourable
to the house of York, and put the fortifications in a state
of defence. Here Perkin left Lady Katherine, and they
never met again. We are told she was devoted to him, and
she certainly followed him through many privations. This
was not much to be wondered at if the following account
of him were true : " Of visage beautiful, of countenance
majestical, of v/it subtle and crafty, in education pregnant,
in languages skilful, a lad, in short, of a fine shape, bewitching
behaviour and very audacious." ^ Perkin was joined at Bodmin
by about 3000 malcontents. The men of Cornwall had a
grievance against King Henry about taxes, and took this
opportunity of airing their wrongs. At Bodmin he was pro-
claimed King as Richard IV., and Exeter was besieged, but
Perkin and his followers were repulsed by Lord William
Courtenay. In Ellis's "Letters" there is one from King Henry
VII. to Sir Gilbert Talbot about the assault of " Excester."
The King writes : " Within that our Citty were our cousin
of Devonshire (the Earl) Sir William Courtenay, Sir Jo Sap-
cotes, Sir Piers Edgecombe, Sir Humfrey Fulforth, with many
other noblemen of our countries of Devonshire and Cornwall."

Shortly after Perkin heard that the King had arrived at
Taunton, and from that moment he seems to have lost heart
and to have seen that his cause was hopeless. He fled from
the West, and at first took sanctuary in Beaulieu Monastery
near Southampton, an Abbey of the Cistercian order, and,
later on, in the Carthusian Convent at Sheen. After the battle
of Blackheath, in which he was completely routed, he surrendered
and made a full confession on condition that his life was spared.

' Bacon describes him as "mercuriall, made of quicksilver, which is hard to
hold and emprison."

245

The Merchant of the Ruby

He was taken prisoner to London, where he was put hito
the stocks at Westminster and Cheapside, and compelled to
read his confession in various parts of London, after which
he was committed to the Tower in June 1490. It had been
stated that the confession, which Perkin wrote with his own
hand, was dictated, but, as Mr. Gairdner so forcibly puts
it, the minuteness of the particulars it contained, with its
circumstantial statement of facts, was strong evidence in its
favour, and all the persons (and they were many) whom he
mentioned as being his relations can be verified in the Muni-
cipal Archives of Tournay. The confession (of which two
copies exist, one at Tournay and one at Courtrai) is thoroughly
consistent with the best sources of information we possess.

The leniency of Henry VII. would have enabled Perkin
Warbeck to have lived on in comparative comfort had he
remained quiet, but he commenced plotting with the unfortunate
Earl of Warwick, who was also confined in the Tower, and with
the idea of effecting their escape proposed, it is said, to murder
the Lieutenant of the Tower. In consequence of this the
Earl of Warwick was executed and Perkin Warbeck was hanged
at Tyburn in November 1499. Thus ended the adventures of
" The Merchant of the Ruby."

To return to Lady Katherine, whom Perkin had left for

safety at St. Michael's Mount, the King sent Lord Daubeney

to bring her to his Royal presence at Winchester. Henry was

immensely struck with her beauty and charm, and this, added

to the fact that she was his cousin, induced him to place her

under the special care of his Oueen, the good and kind

Elizabeth of York, and he gave her an ample pension. She

was sent to the Palace at Richmond accompanied by " a

goodly sorte of sad matrones and gentlewomen" (Hallibert).

246

The Merchant of the Ruby

In King Henry's private expenses the item occurs on the
15th October 1499 of "payment of £'], 13s. 4d. to Robert
Buthewell for horses, saddles, and other necessaries for convey-
ing Lady Katherine to the Queen."

From the purity of her complexion and also in allusion to
her husband's pretensions, she obtained the name of " the
White Rose." The next we hear of her is in 1502, when we
find in Leland's " Collectanea " that " Lady Katherine Gourdon
was in the Queen's train and ranking next to the Royal
Family at the fian^elles of the Princess Margaret to James IV.,
King of Scotland, which ceremony took place on St. Paul's
day at the King's Royal manor of Richmond." After the death
of Henry VII. in 1509 she continued in favour with his
successor, and, moreover, Henry VIII. made her many grants
of land in Berkshire, including Filbert, Eton, Frylsham-Garford,
Longwittenham and Fyfield,^ and she married James
Strangways, one of the Gentlemen Ushers of the Chamber, and
took up her residence at the last-named place. Her second
husband lived only three or four years, and she then married
a Welsh knight, Sir Matthew (or Mathyas, as he signed himself)
Cradock of Cardiff; he was a widower thirty-six years of age,
of an old Glamorganshire family, and had a daughter Margaret
by his first wife, who married a Herbert and was ancestress of
the present Earl of Pembroke and Powys. Lady Katherine
became a widow for the third time in 1531, when Sir Matthew
died and was buried in St. Anne's Chapel (now called Herbert
Chapel), on the north side of the old church at Swansea,
v/hich he had built. Sir Matthew left Lady Katherine the sole

1 These manors were purchased with their advowsons from the representa-
tives of Lady Katherine by Sir Thomas White, who gave them to the President
and Scholars of St. John's College, Oxford, founded by him in 1555.

247

The Merchant of the Ruby

executrix of his will, expressly bequeathing to her "all such
jewels as she had of her own the day that she and I were
married, which included numerous ornaments of diamonds,
rubies, pearls, sapphires, garnets and gold and silver plate."

Lady Katherine appears to have found the married state
congenial, as she took unto herself a fourth husband in the shape
of Christopher Assheton, who outlived her.

She died November 5, 1537, and was buried at Fyfield, and
her tomb is still to be seen in the chancel of St, Nicholas's Chapel.
Sir Matthew had intended that Lady Katherine should be buried
with him at Swansea, where on a monument, much mutilated and
defaced, is the following inscription : '* Here lieth Mathie Cradok
Kt., sometime Depute unto the Right Honourable Charles, Earl
of Worcet, in the County of Glamorgan and Morgan, Chancellor
of the same. Steward of Gower and Kelvie and me Ladi Katerin
his wife." ^ But the worthy knight had not calculated that his
loving spouse would still take another and a fourth husband !
and in her testamentary instructions Lady Katherine desired
that her " body should be buried in the parish church of Fifield,
in suche place as shall be thought necessarie and mete by the
discretion of my dearly beloved husband." ^ Her will was proved
by her executor Richard Smith, " her loving brother-in-lav/."
After directing the payment of all her debts, " including which
might be owing by her late husband, Sir Matthew Cradock of
Cardiff and James Strangwis, late of Fyfelde deceased," she says,
" I give and bequeath to my cousin Margarett Keymes such of
my apparell as shall be thought mete for her by the discretion
of my husband and my said executor." Attached to this cousin

^ Sir Matthew Cradock was son of Richard ap Gwillim ap Evan ap Cradock.

* Lysons says her tomb stands under an obtuse arch, with a roof of rich tracery,
blue and gold ; over the arch is a cornice of gilt foliage. The Editor of Ashmole's
" Collections" says it was called the monument of" Lady Gorgon" !

248

The Merchant of the Ruby

Margaret Keymes there is a curious history. Her mother was
Princess Cecilia, a daughter of King Edward IV., whom Hall
calls " less fortunate than fair." She and her sisters were left
destitute, but when Henry VII. chose one of them as his Queen
their fortunes rose. Elizabeth allowed them an annuity and
gave them many presents, and Princess Cecilia bore her sister's
train at her coronation. Furthermore, King Henry arranged a
marriage for her with her uncle by the half-blood John Viscount
Welles, K.G. The latter died in 1489, and Princess Cecilia then
made a terrible mesalliance and married one Thomas Keymes,^ a
native of the Isle of Wight — a man of such obscure birth that it
is never stated who or what he was, and his name is variously given
as Kyme, Kime, Kerne, and Kymhe. By this husband Princess
Cecilia had a daughter, the "Margaret Keymes" mentioned in
Lady Katherine's will as her cousin. She married John Witherby,
and left descendants in the female line which can be traced for
several generations.^ Princess Cecilia also had a Keymes son
called Richard, and he left a daughter Agnes, who married John
Baldwy of Southampton.

Lady Katherine ends her will in these words : " And whereas I
in my life and my husband James Strangwis in the Monastery of
St. Mary, over in Southerke by London, founded, constituted
and ordenyd in the same Monasterye a p'petual Chaunterye with
one priest therein dayly to syng masse for the soules of my father,
the Erie of Huntley and Gordon, and my Lady and mother, his
wife ; my soule, my saide husband's souls and James Strangwys

^ Burke calls him " Sir John Kyme of Linconshire" ; there is a family of that
name there, but the pedigrees printed by the Harleian Society do not give this
Royal Alliance, and it is therefore improbable that Princess Cecilia's second
husband was one of them.

^ Her daughter married John Brooke, and their daughter Agnes became the
wife of John Duffiekl, whose daughter, Agnes Uuffield, married first Robert Turnour,
and secondly Robert Witherington.

249

-s**-

The Merchant of the Ruby

his father and mother and all xten souls : I desire my saide
husband my executor to have the oversight of the same
Chaunterye, so that all masses and other oraysons may be sung
and said according to the very true Fundacon thereof."

It is to be hoped that when Lady Katherine was arranging
for these masses to be said for herself and so many of her
relations that in " all xten souls " she meant to include the poor
Merchant of the Ruby.

250

Charlotpe Brabantine dk Nassau,
d. of William the Silent.

"THE QUEEN OF MAN"

" 'Twas when they raised, -'mid sap and siege,
The banners of their rightful liege

At this she-captain's call,
Who, miracle of womankind 1
Lent mettle to the meanest hind

That mann'd the castle wall."

Amongst our Huguenot ancestors was Charlotte de la Tre-
moille. She was the daughter of Claude de la Tremoille,
Due de Thouars, Prince de Tarente et de Talmand/ and
her mother was Charlotte Brabantine de Nassau, daughter
of William the Silent, Prince of Orange. Claude de la Tre-
moille was one of the leaders of the Reformed Church in
France, and fought bravely under the banner of Henri IV.
He died when he was only thirty-eight years of age, leaving
his wife and family under the protection of his two brothers-
in-law, the Elector Palatine Prince Maurice of Nassau and the
Due de Bouillon, as well as of Monsieur du Plessis, desiring that
his children should be brought up in the religion in which
he died. Our heroine, his third daughter, who was born in
1601 at Thouars, where she spent her youth almost exclu-
sively, seems to have been a precocious child, if we judge from
the two letters before us written on ruled paper in a large
hand and addressed to her mother. The first one, written
when she was only five or six years of age, is as follows : —

" Madame, — Since you went away I have become very
good. Thank God you will find me quite learned. I know

^ This family had nearly fifty titles, and dated from 1040.
251

"The Queen of Man"

seventeen Psalms, all the quatrains of Pibrac, all the huitains
of Zamariel, and above all I can talk Latin. My little brother
is so pretty. He could not be prettier ; when visitors come
he is quite enough to entertain them. It seems, Madame, a
very long time since we saw you. Pray love me. M. de St.
Christophe says you are well, for which I have thanked God.
I pray to God for you. I humbly kiss the hands of my
good Aunt and of my little cousins. I am, Madame, your
very humble and very obedient and good daughter,

"Charlotte de la Tremoille."

The other letter, written when she was eight, says : —

"Madame, — I am very sorry that I have been disobedient
to you, but I hope you will never again have occasion to
complain of me. Although I have not been very good, I
hope to be so for the future that you will have no cause
of dissatisfaction ; and that Madame my grandmother and
Messieurs my uncles will not find me ungrateful any more,
but hoping to render them obedient and very humble service.
This new year they have shown their kindness by giving me
beautiful New Year's presents ; Madame (the Princess of
Orange) a carcanet of diamonds and rubies ; Monsieur le
Prince d'Orange some earrings : His Excellency three dozen
of pearl and ruby buttons, Monsieur my uncle a dress of silver
tissue, etc."

These letters are, of course, translations, and in the originals
the spelling is so bad that one has to read the sentences aloud
in order to guess the words !

The first event in Charlotte de la Tremoille's life of any
importance took place when she was eighteen, and gave her
a supreme satisfaction which lasted all her life. This was
the marriage of her brother, the Due de Thouars, to his cousin,

Marie de la Tour d'Auvergne, daughter of the Due de

252

" The Queen of Man "

Bouillon and of Elizabeth of Nassau, and she continued
to live on at Thouars with her brother and sister-in-law for
the next seven years. Then her widowed mother took
Charlotte to Paris and on to The Hague, where we find them
in the beginning of the year 1626 at the Court of Frederick
Henry of Nassau, Prince of Orange, her uncle. ^ There a mar-
riage was arranged for her, and in July of that year she be-
came the wife of James Stanley, Lord Strange, eldest son of
the sixth Earl of Derby. Lord Strange was very handsome,
and had a high character for honour and bravery, besides being
extremely accomplished and classed amongst the best prose
writers of his day. Li the T>esiderata Curiosa will be found
the "History of the Isle of Man," by James, Earl of Derby
and Lord of Man, interspersed with long and excellent
advices to his son. And amongst the Sloane MSS. in the
British Museum there is a sort of Historical Commonplace
Book written by him and inscribed on the first page, '"Ne
turba operas meas '— J. Derby, 1645, Castle Rushin in the
Isle of Man."

Mademoiselle de la Tremoille was twenty-five years old
at the time of her marriage, and could never have had
much pretensions to good looks. There is a portrait of her
which was painted by Rubens at The Hague just before she
married. It represents her in a corsage of scariet satin and
a hat with white feathers, and she looks bright, blooming,
and arch ; but if she was not very handsome her good qualities
and fine character endeared her to her husband, and they
were a most united couple. In writing to her mother, Lady

1 Frederick Henry became Prince of Orange on the death of his half-brother
Maurice in 1625. His son William married Mary, daughter of Charles I., and their
son was William III., King of England.

''The Queen of Man"

Strange says : " He (Lord Strange) shows me the utmost
affection, and God gives me grace to live in much happiness
and peace of mind"; and again she writes, "I have every
reason to thank God and you for having married me so
happily."

Directly after their marriage they went to England, and
Lady Strange was made one of the Ladies-in-waiting to
Queen Henrietta Maria, herself a bride of only one year.
But she does not appear to have held this position long, for
from the following year we find her living continuously at
Lathom House, her father-in-law's (Lord Derby) place in
Lancashire, which he gave up entirely to his son, residing him-
self at Chester.

Money troubles caused the young couple great embarrass-
ments from the commencement of their married life. The
Derby estates were encumbered with debt, and her own family,
which had been so powerful and had such large possessions,
was suffering greatly from the Civil Wars, in consequence of
which her brother, the Due de la Tremoille, was unable to
pay her fortune or marriage settlement. This Lady Strange
felt most keenly for her husband's sake, and she wrote to her
mother : " If I had not so good a husband this would perhaps
arouse suspicions in him, which however, thank God, it has
not done. What troubles me most is that by entering this
family I see I have only increased its debts and expenses.*'

The sons and daughters that were born to them added
to their anxieties. The eldest, Charles, had for his sponsor
King Charles I., who gave him at his christening two gilt
cups, presenting Lady Strange at the same time with some fine
diamonds. The Duchess of Richmond, who was godmother
on the occasion, gave her godson " a large basin and a silver-

254

James Stanley, 7th Eakl of Derby, K.G., and Charlotte, Countess of Dhrhv
(From an engravino at Swallowfield after Vandycke)

''The Queen of Man"

gilt knife, which is used when the loaves of bread have been
removed from the table," and to Lady Strange a turquoise
bracelet.

In 1640 Lord Strange succeeded his father as seventh Earl
of Derby, and was one of the first who, when King Charles
L declared war, joined him at York with three regiments of
infantry and as many troops of horse, raised, clothed, and
armed solely at his own expense.

After having taken Preston and Lancaster from the rebels
by storm, leading the attacks with the greatest bravery,
Lord Derby then busily employed himself fortifying his own
house of Lathom ; but before he had time to complete his
arrangements, he heard that the rebels were contemplating an
attack on the Isle of Man. This island had been the private
property of the Stanleys since the time of Henry IV,, who
had granted it to Sir John Stanley.^ It was a kingdom by
itself, and the Earls of Derby bore the title of "King of
Man," which was afterwards exchanged for that of "Lord
of Man."

Leaving the completion of his plans for the defence of
Lathom to the charge of his wife. Lord Derby at once pro-
ceeded to the Isle of Man. He had scarcely left when
Lady Derby heard that an attack would shortly be made on
Lathom. No doubt the enemy thought that, as it was left
in the hands of a woman and a foreigner to boot, little or
no resistance would be made ; but they did not realise the
character of her with whom they had to deal — a true daughter
of Nassau, and granddaughter of William the Silent. Lady

^ James, tenth Earl of Derby, dying without issue in 1735, the lordship of Man
descended to James Murray, second Duke of Atholl. In 1725 the Lords of the
Treasury purchased the island at a valuation amounting to ^418,000, and it was
then entirely ceded to the British Crown.

^S5

" The Queen of Man "

Derby worked assiduously for eighteen months, strengthening
her little garrison, by increasing her stock of provisions and
military stores, bringing in barrels of powder and ammuni-
tion secretly by night, and collecting within the walls as
many of the neighbours and men of the lower classes that
she could depend upon, in all more than three hundred men.
These, added to her servants, she formed into six regiments,
each under a lieutenant chosen from gentlemen of the neigh-
bourhood, and the command of the whole Lady Derby
entrusted to Captain Farmer, a Scotchman who had served
with reputation in the Low Countries.^

During all this time Lady Derby never went beyond the
courts of the house, and everything was done with such
secrecy and so cleverly managed that the rebels were quite
unaware of what had been going on. A council of war, held
at Manchester in February 1644, decided that Colonel Ashton
of Middleton, Moor of Bank Hall, and Rigby of Preston,
should attack Lathom. They took up their quarters two
miles off, headed by Fairfax, who sent a message to Lady
Derby, promising on behalf of the Parliament grace to her
husband if she surrendered Lathom. Her reply was that, in
a business of so much importance, she must have a week to
consider her answer. Fairfax would not agree to this, and
asked her to come in her carriage to New Park, a house
belonging to Lord Derby in the neighbourhood, for an interview
with him. Lady Derby was very indignant at this suggestion
and said, "Say to Sir Thomas Fairfax that I do not forget
either the honour of my lord or my own birth, and that
I conceive it more knightly that Sir Thomas Fairfax should

* Captain Farmer was killed at the battle of Marston Moor.
256

"The Queen of Man"

wait upon me than I upon him." ^ The General then sent
two of his Colonels, who offered her that she and her family
should remove to Knowsley Hall, another of the Stanley
family seats, and should there be unmolested and have the
moiety of the Earl's estate for her support. She refused
all their offers, and on the yth of March this memorable siege
began. The enemy at once set to work to dig a trench, but
were much harassed by the sorties made by the garrison. On
the 24th of March Lady Derby ordered a sally of two hundred
men, who slew about sixty and took some prisoners, the loss
on her side consisting only of two. With her daughters, Mary
and Catherine, Lady Derby watched over everything, and she
was often on the ramparts. When a bullet fell into her
bedroom she smiled disdainfully, and it was only after the same
thing had occurred several times that she consented to change
her apartment. On one occasion a shell had burst in the
dining-room during dinner, which broke the glass and furni-
ture ; but the children, who were beside their mother, did not
move and the meal was continued. At length Colonel Rigby
announced a grand attack with mortar-piece and cannon, but
sent an insolent message to Lady Derby ordering her to
surrender before two o'clock. Lady Derby was in the court-
yard talking to her officers when this messenger arrived. She
read the letter, and then tore it in pieces before the messenger,
and told him to go back to Rigby and " tell that insolent
rebel he shall have neither persons, goods, nor house. When
our strength and provision are spent we shall find a fire
more merciful than Rigby's ; and then, if the Providence of
God prevent it not, my goods and house shall burn in his
sight, and myself, children, and soldiers, rather than fall

^ Halsall's "Siege of Lathom House."

257 R

^'The Queen of Man"

into his hands, will seal our religion and loyalty in the same
flame." ^

The rebels then settled on a general assault with a mortar-
piece of large calibre, and no quarter was to be given ; but
Lady Derby determined to make a desperate effort to circum-
vent these plans. Accordingly, at four o'clock in the morning,
Captain Chisenhall and eighty men silently left the eastern
gate, and before they were discovered by the enemy they
were under the cannon. Meanwhile Captain Fox, who had
gone out by another gate, made himself master of the works
which defended the mortar, while Captain Ogle beat back the
enemy. Ropes were passed round the mortar and the formid-
able engine was rolled into the courtyard to Lady Derby's
feet. She immediately ordered her chaplain to be called and
gathered her household together in the chapel to return thanks
to God. This remarkable exploit had only cost the lives of
two of the garrison, the loss of the enemy being far more
considerable. Rigby had been so sure of his success that he
had actually invited his friends in the neighbourhood to come
on this day to see the reduction and the burning of the house.
The sorties of the garrison continued incessantly, and Rigby
complained that he was " obliged to drive them back as often
as five and six times in the same night." In most of these
affairs Lady Derby was present, and frequently in great danger.
Her conduct united the most exemplary piety with the most
determined courage. Every action was prefaced by devout
prayer, every success acknowledged by humble thanksgiving.
At last the garrison was reduced to the greatest distress. The
ammunition and the corn were spent, and they had killed for
food nearly all the horses. Still Lady Derby held out and

^ Halsall's " Siege of Lathom House."
258

"The Queen of Man"

gave the same answer as before to a fresh offer from the
besiegers.

At this time Prince Rupert was marching his army to
York, and Lord Derby entreated him to pass through
Lancashire and go to the aid of Lady Derby, who was his
cousin. As an inducement to the soldiers to lose no time
on the march, he promised them a reward of ;/^3000, raised
on his wife's jewels, which she had managed to convey to
him during the siege.

Rigby on hearing of the approach of Prince Rupert,
withdrew his forces on the 27th May 1644, ^^^ ^^^^ ended
this memorable defence. Lady Derby then retired to the
Isle of Man with her six children.^

At the beginning of the year 1647 Lady Derby went to
London with the object of trying to get the name of Lord
Derby erased from the list of the thirty-six persons who
were excluded from the amnesty.^ During this visit she
visited King Charles I. for the second time since he was a
prisoner, and writes that "the King is hopeful about his
affairs." We have no accounts of what she felt during the
enactment of the dire tragedy that followed, but soon after
the death of the King, Ireton wrote to Lord Derby to sur-
render the Isle of Man to the Parliament. The noble Earl
replied in the following terms: —

" Sir, — I received your letter with indignation and scorn,
and return you this answer ; that I cannot but wonder whence
you should gather any hopes from me that I should, like

^ Lathom House continued to hold its own against the enemy for six months
longer but, finally, was obliged to surrender, when the fortress was razed to the
ground.

^ Thurloe's State Papers.

259

'' The Queen of Man "

you, prove treacherous to my sovereign. I scorn your
proffers, disdain your favour, and abhor your treason, and
am so far from delivering up this island to your advantage,
that I will keep it to the utmost of my power to your de-
struction. Take this for your final answer and forbear any
further solicitations, for, if you trouble me with any more,
I will burn the paper and hang the bearer : this is the im-
mutable resolution and shall be the undoubted practice of
him who accounts it his chiefest glory to be

" His Majesty's most loyal and obedient servant,

"Derby.
"Castletown, 22nd July 1649."

At the same time Lord Derby published a manifesto in
London, which ended thus : —

"And I do cheerfully invite all my allies, friends, and
acquaintances and all my tenants in the counties of Lancaster
and Chester or elsewhere, and all other of His Majesty's
faithful and loyal subjects to repair to this Island (Man)
as their general rendezvous and safe harbour where they shall
receive entertainment, where we will unanimously employ
our forces to the utter ruin of these rebellious regicides and
the final destruction of their interests by land and sea.
Neither shall any apprehension of danger to my life or
estate appal me.

"Derby."

About this time Lady Derby's health began to give way
under all the strain of what she had gone through, and she
was seriously ill for a considerable period. In 1650 she
wrote to her sister-in-law : " Since I last wrote to you I have
received news of my daughters in England which afflicts me
not a little, and though I can think of nothing to relieve

them, I hope to find some comfort in telling you my troubles,

260

;il ilill'iP'^

■■ii

" The Queen of Man "

for I know that you will share and if possible remedy them.
When I was in England [Lady Derby never talks of the Isle
of Man as England] and intending to come here, I was ad-
vised to send for Catherine and Amelia and to leave them
at Knowsley that they might keep possession of the house
and receive the income granted to children of ' delinquents,'
for so they call us. ... I procured passports from the Parlia-
ment, and they have been there two years without any one
ever having disturbed either them or their people ; but about
three weeks ago a man of the name of Birch, the governor
of a small town called Liverpool, took them prisoners and
confined them in the said town, where they are now in
custody. No reason is given for this, but we hear it is be-
cause they are thought to be too much liked, and that people
were beginning to make applications to the Parliament in
the hope that their father might come to terms. . . . We
hear that they are bearing it bravely, and I have no doubt
this is true of the eldest ; but my daughter Amelia is delicate
and timid, and is undergoing medical treatment by order of
M. de Mayerne.^ They are in a wretched place, ill lodged,
and in a bad air, but these barbarians think of nothing but
carrying out their damnable designs, which could not be
worse if all hell itself had invented them."

Bradshaw, who hated Lord Derby, was supposed to be at
the bottom of this treatment, which got worse and worse, till
at last Lady Catherine and Lady Amelia Stanley were not allowed
sufficient food, and their servants went about from house to
house to beg for assistance, or they would literally have suffered
from hunger. Eventually application on their behalf was made
to Fairfax, who had always shown them kindness ; and he wrote

^ Sir Theodore Mayerne, who was Charles I.^s doctor.
261

" The Queen of Man "

that if Lord Derby would surrender the Isle of Man to the
Parliament, not only should his children be set at liberty but
he himself should be allowed to return to England and enjoy
one moiety of his estate.^

Lord Derby, whose motto, "Sans changer," seems to have
been adopted in a prophetic spirit, again refused, saying his
children should never be redeemed by his disloyalty.

When Charles IL left Scotland in 1651 to carry the war
into England he sent for Lord Derby, who at once started
from the Isle of Man with ten ships to join his royal master,
and landed in Lancashire with three hundred gentlemen.
Marching to Wigan, a town devoted to the King, Lord Derby
was attacked by Lilburn, and he and his cavaliers were forced
to give way before the superior numbers, but not before
Lord Derby had two horses killed under him, and received
seven shots on his breastplate and fourteen cuts on his
helmet, besides wounds on his arms and shoulders. He,
however, managed to escape, leaving most of his friends dead
on the field of battle, and disguised made his way, with three
attendants, towards Worcester. On the borders of Stafford-
shire and Shropshire he and Colonel Roscarrock met Mr.
Richard Sneyd, who brought them to Boscobel House, a
small house belonging to the GiflFards, a Catholic family
who lived at Chillington, and which was only inhabited by
a family of peasants called Penderell, who acted as caretakers,
and were, like their master, Catholics. Lord Derby rested
there for two nights, and then went on to Worcester, arriving
there the day before the fatal battle where the Royalists were
completely routed by Cromwell ; King Charles would not
have escaped with his life had it not been for Lord Derby,

' Seacome's " House of Stanley."
262

Photo: Emery Walker.

James Stanley, Seventh Earl of Derby, K.(j.

From (he Portrait in the Xalioiial Portrait Oaiierv.

" The Queen of Man "

Lord Cleveland, and Colonel Wogan, who contrived to force
a passage for him through the ranks of the enemy, sur-
rounding him and protecting him with their swords, they
themselves remaining behind to cover his retreat. Later on
they rejoined the King at some distance from the town, and
Lord Derby recommended his Majesty to conceal himself at
Boscobel, Mr. Charles Giffard offering to conduct him there.
Lord Derby, on parting from the King, attempted to get
into Lancashire, but was taken prisoner and conveyed to
Chester, whence he wrote a letter to his wife as follows : —

" My dear Heart, — It hath been my misfortune since I
left you not to have one line of comfort from you, which
hath been most afflictive to me. ... I escaped a great danger
at Wigan, but met with a worse at Worcester, being not so
fortunate as to meet with any that would kill me. ... I
and Lord Lauderdale had quarter given by one Captain
Edge, a Lancashire man, and one that was so civil to me,
that I and all that love me are beholden to him."

Lord Derby goes on to recommend his wife to give up
the Isle of Man, which place he says she knows has always
been his darling, and make the best conditions she can for
herself and children, and so " trusting in the assistance and
goodness of God, begin the world again."

Lord Derby was declared guilty of high treason and
condemned to death, with a very short interval for fear of
an appeal. Lord Strange, Lord Derby's eldest son, on hear-
ing of his father's condemnation, travelled night and day to
London and sent a petition to the House of Commons. It
was of a most affecting nature, and the majority of the
members were inclined to mercy ; but at this critical moment

Cromwell and Bradshaw rose and left the House, taking

263

''The Queen of Man"

many of their friends with them, and the numbers left not
being sufficient to form a House the petition could not be
put to the vote, and the question was thus decided silently
and without appeal. Lady Catherine Stanley, Lord Derby's
daughter, also wrote a most fervent appeal to her aunt the
Duchesse de la Tremoille, imploring her to use her influence
in his favour, but before the Duchess could reply Lord
Derby had ceased to exist. He was executed at Bolton, 15th
October 1651, preserving his heroic fortitude to the last.
He was attended by his two eldest daughters and his son
and daughter-in-law, but so hurried were his last days that
Lady Derby only heard of his condemnation after he was no
more. The following beautiful letter he wrote to her two
days before his execution : —

" My dear Heart, — I have heretofore sent you comfort-
able lines, but alas I have now no word of comfort saving to
our last and best refuge, which is Almighty God, to whose
will we must submit ; and when we consider how He hath
disposed of these nations, and the government thereof, we have
no more to do but to lay our hands upon our mouths, judging
ourselves, and acknowledging our sins, joined with others,
to have been the cause of these miseries, and to call on Him
with tears for mercy. The governor of this place. Colonel
Duckenfield, is General of the forces which are now going
against the Isle of Man ; and, however you might do for
the present, in time it would be a grievous and troublesome
thing to resist, especially those that at this hour command
the three nations; wherefore my advice, notwithstanding my
great afl^ection to that place, is that you make conditions for
yourself and children and servants and people there, and such
as came over with me, to the end you may get to some place
of rest, and taking thought of your poor children, you may

264

"The Queen of Man"

in some sort provide for them : then prepare yourself to come
to your friends above in that blessed place where bliss is, and
no mingling of opinion. I conjure you, my dearest Heart,
by all those graces that God has given you, that you exercise
your patience in this great and strange trial. If harm come
to you, then I am dead indeed ; and until then I shall live in
you, who are truly the best part of myself. When there is
no such as I in being, then look upon yourself and my poor
children, then take comfort and God will bless you. I
acknowledge the great goodness of God to have given me
such a wife as you — so great an honour to my family — so
excellent a companion to me — so pious — so much of all that
can be said of good I must confess is impossible to say enough,
thereof I ask God pardon with all my soul that I have not been
enough thankful for so great a benefit, and when I have done
anything at any time that might justly offend you, with joined
hands I also ask your pardon. Oh, my dear soul, I have
reason to believe that this may be the last time that ever I
shall write unto you. ... I must forgive all the world, else
I would not go out of it as a good Christian ought to do ;
and I hold myself in duty bound to desire you to forgive my
son and his bed-fellow. She hath more judgment than I
looked for, and it may be of good use to him and the rest of
our children. She takes care of him, and I am deceived much
if you and I have not been greatly misinformed when we were
told ill of her. I hope you will have reason to think so too.
. . . For my sake, keep not too strict, too severe a life, but
endeavour to live for your children's sake, which by an over-
melancholy course you cannot do. The world knows you so
full of virtue and piety that it will never be ill thought if
you do not keep your chamber.

" I have no more to say to you at this time than my prayers
for the Almighty's blessing to you, my dear Moll and Ned and
Billy. Amen. Sweet Jesus ! Your faithful,

"Derby."
265

^'The Queen of Man"

After her husband's death Lady Derby still refused to
give up the Isle of Man, replying to the demand of the
Parliament that she held it for the King and would not sur-
render it to his enemies. She had for some time been
fortifying the Castle of Rushin where the crown of lead was
kept, the insignia of the King of Man, and she and her
children remained there under the protection of its governor,
Sir Thomas Armstrong. Captain William Christian, a Manx-
man, commanded the troops in the island, but he was gained
over by the Parliamentarians, whom he allowed to land, and
Lady Derby and her children were given up to the Com-
missioners. After being virtually a prisoner there for two
months she was allowed to go to London, where she followed
her husband's last directions.

Although, as she wrote to her sister, " all her joy was in
the grave," she occupied herself with the advancement of her
family, and shortly after we find her arranging matrimonial
alliances for her three daughters, Catherine, Mary, and Amelia,
who married respectively the Marquis of Dorchester, the Earl
of Strafford, and the Earl of Athol.

At the Restoration Lady Derby was once again much to
the fore, and her letters at this time abound with news concerning
the Court and its entourage. She saw much of the Dowager-
Queen Henrietta-Maria, her former mistress, whom she says
charmed all who saw her ; and she joined in her grief at the
death of her eldest daughter, the Princess of Orange, who died
in London either of measles or small-pox — the doctors could
not decide which it was — but bled her until she had no strength
left. By her death the fascinating Henrietta became " Princess-
Royal." Lady Derby, who calls her " our adorable Princess,"

writes about her marriage with " Monsieur." Lady Derby

266

''The Queen of Man"

was also much in the company of the Queen of Bohemia, of
whom she remarks that, notwithstanding all she had gone
through, was of as youthful a disposition as if she were a
girl of twenty.

But above all Lady Derby was interested in the (newly
restored) King, and fell completely under his charm. Writing
in 1 66 1 she says : "Imagine the surprise I had last night; I
had only my daughter Strafford with me, when suddenly they
told me the King was on the stairs attended only by the
Marquis of Ormond." She goes on to expatiate on his kind-
ness, and finishes by saying : " It must be owned that he is
the most charming Prince in the world." The fascination ex-
tended even to his looks, for in another letter, describing the
coronation, she says: "His good looks and his courtesy are
beyond description." Lady Derby was much excited about all
the different marriages suggested for him, and notwithstanding
the difference of religion, her hopes were in the direction of
" La grande Mademoiselle," whom, however, Lady Derby
tells us. King Charles refused to consider as she had snubbed
him so much when he was very young and a wanderer.

Another marriage in which she was much interested was
that of Mademoiselle de la Tremoille, her niece, who was now
thirty, and had hitherto refused all the suitors for her hand.
Lady Derby writes to her sister-in-law to suggest the Duke of
Richmond, whom she describes as the fourth person in Eng-
land and related to the King.^ Mademoiselle de la Tremoille,
however, married Bernard de Saxe Weimar.

All this time poor Lady Derby was in vain trying to get
monies paid to her and her children which apparently were

' Charles Stuart, sixth Duke of Lennox and third Duke of Richmond. At
his death without issue in 1672, King Charles II. was served his Grace's heir.

267

''The Queen of Man"

their due. The demands upon King Charles II. 's exchequer
were more than could possibly be considered ; no sooner had
he entered upon his kingdom than all who had any claim on
him, however slight, and hundreds who had none, hastened
to put forward their demands. From those who desired to
be made peers down to the meanest hind, all swarmed round
Secretary Nicholas with petitions ; some of these were actually
dated the 29th May, so they had lost no time! King Charles
said that, if he were to ennoble every one who expected it,
the House of Lords would have to meet on Salisbury Plain ;
and to have satisfied all who put forward claims, would, it
has been said, have required the wealth of a Lydian monarch
and the patronage of an American President ! As it was, many
of those whom King Charles wished to oblige had to be kept
waiting for their pensions for years. This was the case with
Lady Derby, though the King tried to make amends for her
and her family by all that was in his power. Her eldest son
was reinstated in his estates ; her second son was given a post
about the King ; the third was appointed Gentleman-of-the-
Bedchamber to the Duke of York ; and Lady Derby herself
was promised the position of governess to the Queen's children
— children which never made their appearance ! — but she did
not live long enough to regret this.

Early in 1663 Lady Derby's correspondence with her
sister-in-law ceased; and on the 31st of March 1664 she died
at Knowsley, aged sixty-three, the whilom " Queen of Man,"

268

PEDIGR

Jean II., Roi (
mort a Lond

Charles d'Albret, = Jeanne de
Roi de Navarre.

1386I

de Montford, V. Due de Bretagne = J
et de Richmond ; mort 1399. I

^"^^Z, • T7- . J n u uerite de Rohan,

tagne. = Alam, Vicomte de Rohan,

j a quo les dues de Rohan.

athlrine de Rohan. = Jean, Vicomte cj^harles, Comte d'Angouleme. = Louise de Savoie.

Alain d'Albret. = Fran9oise de

I Comtesse de Pd I

! . r

{. =Fran9ois I'^'", Roi de France.

ise de Savoie.

Jean d.

= Catherine de Medecis.

lilip II.,
d'Espagne.

I ' ri II

Marguerite d'Orl^ans, = Henri c'''NpY-i''
Duchesse d'Alen9on. Roi de N:j ' "''^'
I 503- I J

Marguerite. = Henri IV. ,
Roi de France.

Jeanne d'Albret. =Antoin|

Marguerite. = Hen
Roid«

Louis XIII., :
Roi de France.

Louis XIV.,
Roi de France.

;te-Manricette. — (i) Philip Herbert,

Earl of Pembroke, K.G.,

(2) Timol^on de Gouffier,

Marquis de Thois.

Elizabeth. = Philippe II.,
Roi d'Espagne.

P'ranfois,
]uis de Gouffier.

Marie-Anne de Gouffier. = Louis de Bourbon,
Comte de Busset.

A PORTION OF THE
PEDIGREE OF LOUISE DE K^ROUALLE, DUCHESS OF PORTSMOUTH

mml.L™dtl...3ll3. 1

"'T'"™'""""'

UfeUgnc. diaries Com!

d'AngouKn

c.=,LoiuledeS»v

'*■ 1 1

CH„,Lv.,

= Henry VI.,
Roi d'AnslclerTC

'^.^^^^^^^f-^^Z^

C J V K , «

...,B..,„. LoU.™,..

MiirBUcriledeBf«agne. = Alain. Vicomlede Rohan. Jean, Du

^sr.a"j,rv;. 1

"■"miS-.^s""''

.,L.^..„„,.= .„..,»..„..

a..dedeF».,<.=Fr,n^,. 1

Comic d'Angouleme. | 1 Rcinc d

'^\l^;:^.

''^SSFT'"'"'"'''''™

1 1 1

Frantoi^i I-. = Claude dc Franee. Mnrpjerile d'Oil&ins, = Henri d'Albrrl.

1
ean de Rieux. = Beatrix dc joncbire*. C

--i— — ""~-

c„i,x,. „,]„,.

pMrrbcTt.
n de Gouffier".

HO J, „ . ,C..,„ ., M,.„. ,1 .A,.„.,A„.,.

Maniuisi

c Rieux. =Sustuin(! dc SainU'-McUine.
c SounJ&c, dame dc Bourg I'Evequc,
97 Marquis mone i6i6.

rL^oKI™
Uislien. Maiquii dc Pliuc.

Ill II
Ch.irloIX.. Henrilll.. Eliub«ih.= Philip IL, Margueriie. = H.nn IV., =M!iricd
Roj de France. Roi de France. Roi dEjpngne. Roi dc France- 1

cJr.^. .J,..,.....

J.,u..,

„»,J.M„, C.„,„.. mL.„„

i6iS

L.K^..

Roi de Frmnec 1

Roid'Anslclcrrc.

..u

C.I,,..

Loui«.Ren4e de PM.anco«

.■aSS?!''

Kit ""

APPENDIX

Page 21, line 7. — The Comtesse de Keroualle's direct ancestor, Guil-
laume de Ploeuc, married Constance de Leon, sister of the Vicomte de
Leon ; this marriage is proved by the " denombrement " made for the
King of France in 1679, ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^'^^^ " cette alh'ance suffit pour fixer
la position sociale des sieurs de Plceuc." Guillaume de Ploeuc left only
a daughter, who was the last of her race, but she married in 1292 Tanguy
de Kergorlay, Seigneur du Timeur, who took her arms and name. The
house of Kergorlay, according to Monsieur Courcelles (author of the
Dictionnaire de la Noblesse de France) was one of the most illustrious
of the ancient "chevalerie de la Bretagne," and occupies a glorious
page in the annals of Brittany. Their motto was
" Ayde-toi, Kergorlay, et Dieu t'aydera."

P. 21, /. 13. — Fran9ois de Penhoet married on
the loth May 1330 Jeanne de Penancoet, the only
daughter of Valentin de Penancoet, Seigneur de
K^roualle, by his wife Adelise de Keroulas, dame
de Keroualle.

P. 21, /. 19. — The motto "A bep pen leaddit "
is on the pair of magnificent silver-gilt flagons which
Louise de Keroualle presented to the Corporation of
Portsmouth. They have also her arms engraved on a lozenge sur-
rounded by an ermine mantle. Azure 3 bars argent. The flagons are
i6v7 inches high, and have the hall-mark of 1683.

P. 23, /. 13. — -His father, another Guillaume de Penancoet, Seigneur
de Keroualle, fought at the defence of Brest against the Spaniards and the
Ligueurs so valiantly that Henri IV. wrote with his own hand to con-
gratulate him, and sent him " le collier de St. Michel."

P. 28, /. 21. — King Charles and some of his retinue went whilst
he was at Dover to hear Divine Service at St. Mar}''s Church. He
expressed his dislike in very strong terms at finding that the Presbyterian
members of the Corporation had seats at the east end of the Chancel.
He said it was an indecent and irreverent thing, and ordered that the
doors of the said pews should be nailed up, and they were ultimately

269

Penancoet" 1330

Appendix

removed. The Magistrates, however, took an early opportunity after
the death of King Charles to replace them at the expense of the parish.

P. 44, /. 8. — In September 1663, King Charles II. w^ent with Queen
Catherine to Bath, the preparations for this journey being described by
Pepvs. Sir Alexander Frayer attended them, and finding the hot waters
to be " from the same minerals" as those of Bourbon, sent all his patients
to Bath instead of to France. Sir Alexander came there again in 1673
and recommended the Duchess of Portsmouth to go there. A lady advised
the Duchess to put into the waters she drank coral, crab's eyes, and pearls,
but the Duchess preferred drinking the Bath water " pure et simple."

P. 99, /. 20. — Emmanuel, Louis Henri de Launai, Comted'Antraigues,
born in 1755 at Montpellier, descended from a Huguenot financier of the
time of Henri IV. He was an extraordinarily clever but unscrupulous
character, who had a great but equivocal reputation during the cuicien
regime, the Revolution, and the Empire, all of whom he served in turn,
and became a political agent in the pay of France, Russia, and England at
the same time. Notwithstanding this he counted amongst his intimate
friends La Harpe, d'Alembert, Voltaire, Malesherbcs, Mirabcau, Bcrnardin
de St. Pierre, and Jean Jacques Rousseau ; and in England Robertson the
historian. He was also much employed by Canning, and according to
his own account was a friend of the third Duke of Richmond for thirty-
four vears. He first made himself known by his celebrated Mhnoires
sur les ^tats Generaux. His correspondence would have filled a library ;
much of it is to be found in the archives of Moscow, St. Petersburg,
Vienna, Paris, and London. He married a well-known French actress,
who went by the name of Ste. Huberti.

P. 180. — Captain Mark Horace Kerr Pechell, eldest son of Admiral
Mark Pechell, was born in 1867 and educated at Eton, where he was
immensely popular, and described by one who knew him there as " the
nicest fellow imaginable with a great charm of manner." On leaving
Sandhurst he entered the army; in 1888 obtained his commission in the
Royal Irish Rifles, from which he was afterwards gazetted to the King's
Royal Rifles. Whilst in India he was A.D.C. to the Viceroy, Lord Elgin,
and was equally popular there. When holding an appointment in Egypt,
whither he had gone in search of professional experience, he hurried to
South Africa at the outbreak of hostilities and arrived only two days
before the battle of Dundee, where he met his death on the hills of
Glencoe gallantly leading his men to rush the enemy's entrenchments.
A letter from one of his brother-officers says : "If he would only iiave

270

Appendix

taken care of himself during the battle he would have had a better chance.
When we were lining the wall under the crest of the hill he started to
storm the hill alone, then finding that no one follov/ed him he came back
under a terrific fire, and was shot in less than five minutes." It was said
of him that he was an " ideal English officer, of whom his country and
his school might well be proud — the bravest of the brave, he did not know
what fear was," and " never did a better or a truer specimen of an English
gentleman live nor a more gallant soldier ever serve than 'Jack' Pechell."

Although so young — he was only thirty-two when he was killed — he
had already seen active service in six campaigns ; he served in the Hazara
and Miranzui expedition in 1891, for which he received the medal and
two clasps. In 1892 he again saw service in the Isazai expedition, and in
1895 served with the Chitral Relief Force and gained the medal with
clasp. He was in the Soudan campaign, being present at the battle of
Atbara and at the taking of Khartoum, and in the Nile expedition of
1898, when he was mentioned in despatches.

Only eleven days after the death of Captain Mark Pechell his younger
brother. Captain Charles Kerr Pechell, also in the King's Royal Rifles,
met his death with equal gallantry during a night sortie at Cannon
Kopje, a fort at Mafeking, said to have been a magnificent example of
gallant conduct in the field. Captain Pechell was directing the rifle fire
from the fort and thereby drew the attention of the enemy to himself.
With a detachment of six men, he ranged up from time to time and
picked off the Boers with well-aimed volleys, when a shell from them
burst and gave him his death wounds. He was buried at Mafeking under
cover of darkness. By the light of a " lantern dimly burning " the chaplain,
Mr. Weeks, read the service over him, and the notes of the " Last Post "
wailed solemnly and sadly over the veldt.

He, too, was a young soldier of exceptional promise and soldierlv
qualification, whose personal qualities will always serve as a memory and
an example. At Eton he was a famous cricketer and a bowler in the
first eleven. An Etonian wrote of him as follows : "Blest with an in-
exhaustible fund of humour, a kind heart, and generous temper, he brought
brightness and laughter wherever he went, and never made an enemy in
his life — always keeping his exuberant spirits within bounds of courtesy,
loyalty, and honour."

As H.R.H. the late Duke of Cambridge wrote to Admiral Pechell,
the Pechell family " have the sad consolation of reflecting that these
brothers died nobly fighting for their Queen and country," that Queen

271

Appendix

who so touchingly expressed to their father her " deep concern and
sorrow at his tragic loss." Indeed, there was something more than
tragic in the fate of those two, who in life were so devoted to each other
and in death were not divided.

Page 196, line 3.

Speech by Mr. Leszcrynski^ Vice-Chancellor of the Kingdom of
Poland^ at the wedding of Mr. Andrew Morsztyn, Referee
of the Crown, with Miss Katharine Gordon, celebrated in
JVarsaw during the sitting of Parliament in 1659.

Your Majesties !

Everybody must acknowledge that your power in this world
is equal to that of Gods. It is a mistake to suppose that there is a
blind goddess who determines the fortune of men. She would be but
a poor goddess if she attempted to compete with You, who are our Gods
on this earth. You, and you only, are the distributors of good and evil
fortune amongst your subjects. It is from your hands that the thunder
smites some, whilst the same hands relieve others of their want. Accord-
ing to your decrees do nations disappear from the face of the earth, and
yet on a sign from you they are revived. One word from you is sufficient
to make any nation illustrious, or to make its name unworthy of mention.
You may give to whom you will treasures equal to those of Croesus, or
you may condemn him to perpetual poverty. Briefly: Ludit in hmnanis
vestra potestas rebus. All these things may be merely signs of power,
and any one can exercise his powers for evil, but, on the other hand,
good deeds are characteristic of Gods. And there are many ways in
which you can make the lot of a man desirable to him. You can dis-
tribute honours, you can make men practically demi-gods by delegating
to them some part of your own power, and in this way also you prove
yourselves similar to your Lord in that you make creatures similar to
yourselves. You distribute wealth, you give whole nations into the
perpetual possession of the families of such of your subjects as you love
the most. All these things are extraordinary favours, but yet they do
not make perfection. And God himself did not think these favours
sufficient. After he had given man all the goods of the earth and had
made him king thereof, he found it was not enough, and He went further
and gave to man a wife, since without her all the world would have
been valueless to him. And your Majesties give a vivid example of

272

Appendix

the Maker of All in the persons of this young couple joined together
to-day through your bounty. It would seem to any of us that it was
enough honour for a young man like the bridegroom to have been
admitted as he was to the court of your Majesties. But you, Sire, did
not think so, and you further admitted him to your Chancery, where
you made him keeper of your signet, and where you allowed him to
be in perpetual contact with the most important of your Majesty's
work. And here he did not remain for long ; your Most Gracious
Majesty made him successively ambassador to different Christian monarchs,
placing in this way in his hands many important affairs of your own, as
well as of this Commonwealth, and I doubt not he always performed
his duty to the satisfaction of your Majesty, and proved himself a wise
and prudent minister, worthy of imitation. As soon as he came back
you entrusted him with the protection of widows and orphans and of
all defenceless and poor people, which is the special privilege of your
Majesty. And then what more could he desire ! And yet to-day, by
giving him a wife, your Majesty adds to all his happiness one which
exceeds all the fortunes hitherto conferred on him.

And what shall I say about her Majesty the Queen ? Did not she
behave towards the bride as did your Majesty towards the bridegroom.
And, indeed, what is the power of the goddess fortune in comparison
with yours may easily be illustrated in this descendant of the Kings of
Scotland. She [the goddess] would scarcely have her born in her own
country and snatched her from her mother ; but it was of no avail, for
the young lady found another home in the palace of your Majesty, where
she was brought up in the royal chambers, this Capital of all virtues and
religion. Your Majesties have really performed miracles in acclimatis-
ing to our Polish soil this daughter of distant Britain.

It is usual on similar occasions to praise both families entering into a
new relationship and by this to prove that both sides are worthy of each
other. But this is out of the question when a man takes a wife from
a Royal house. I could of course speak of the extraordinary services
rendered to this country by the Morsztyn family, who brought their old
arms from foreign countries a long time ago, and have attained here their
present position. I could also compare our nobility, whose chief distinc-
tion is liberty, with the foreign nobility based upon pride, but omnis
comparatio odiosa. I could also (if I had not to speak before your
Majesties) say that Mr. Morsztyn would be entitled not only humbly to
ask for, but also to claim his present wife as he is quite worthy of her, but

273 s

Appendix

as I have to deal with your Majesties I must only say : Non sum digitus
Domine. I could then enumerate merits and services, compare them and
so on, but I must acknowledge that in comparison with your Majesties
omnia cum fecimus servi imttiles summus^ and therefore I have only one
thing to say in the name of Mr. Morsztyn, and that is to thank your
Majesties. He thanks therefore most humbly your Majesties for
condescending not only to interest yourselves with his personal lot, but
also for finding him worthy of your protegee. He sees quite plainly
that by giving him his present wife your Majesties give him more than
may be given by honours and wealth or anything else invented for the
gratification of man. He realises how much he owes to your Majesties,
and he knows that he could not pay for it otherwise than by sacrificing
for your Majesties his honour and life. At the same time he promises
to love, and respect, and protect, during the whole of his life, the lady
whom you entrust to him.

P. 199, /. I. — The French Ambassador wrote to Louis XIV. : "Do
not trouble yourself, Sobieski is too fat to sit on a horse and fight."
The Polish King heard of this message. He at once started for Warsaw,
and as he rode past the French Embassy in full armour he shouted so
loud that all should hear, " Be good enough to send another message to
King Louis ; tell him that I have started for Vienna, on horseback and
to fight ! "

P. 212, /. 19. — The following is a translation of three letters of
the Elector Karl Ludwig to Marie Luise Susanne, Baroness von
Degenfeldt, and one of hers to him. (From Liinig, Litera Procerum
Eur op a.)

No. I.

" To the most noble maiden Mistress Maria Susanna of
Degenfeld, Turnau, and Neuhausen.

" I would greet thee more frequently by letter, Maria Susanna, if
I liad the opportunity ; my every hope in life depends on thee ; I love
thee more than myself; my passion cannot be unknown to thee; my
looks and the sighs I uttered in thy presence must have been an
indication of my wounded heart. I implore thee to listen, if I open

274

Appendix

my mind to thee. Thy beauty has taken me captive, thy excellent
virtue and thy graceful charms, in which thou surpasseth all, hold me
prisoner. Hitherto I knew^ not the meaning of love ; it is thou
that hast subjected me to the power of Cupid, nor canst thou wonder
at my ignorance, since T could never have loved my wife so ardently.
The beams from thy eyes, more powerful than those of the sun, have
overwhelmed me ; I am now thy captive, no longer master of myself;
thee I love night and day ; I long for thee, I call upon thee, I wait
for thee, I think of thee, I hope for thee, I delight myself in thee,
my mind is wholly fixed on thee ; thou alone canst save, thou alone
canst destroy me. Choose one of the two ! Let me know thy feelings ;
let not thy words be more cruel to me than thine eyes with which
thou hast fettered me. If thou dost grant my desire, I shall live
happily. Shouldst thou refuse, the light of my heart which loves thee
more than myself will be extinguished. I commend myself to thee
and thy good faith. Farewell, my life and support. Thine only,
thine entirely,

" Charles Louis,
by God's grace Elector of the Rhenish Palatinate."

No. 2.

" For the tender hands of the most charming maiden Mistress Maria
Susanna, Baroness Degenfeld.

" My beloved, thy letter caused me great joy, but it grieves me that
thou shouldst think so little of my love ; for, although many may love
thee, no one's passion can be compared to mine. But thou dost not
believe it, since owing to Charlotte's cunning I am unable to speak
with thee. If I had the opportunity, would'st thou despise me then ?
But take back thy assertion that all my labour will prove vain. Be
not so cruel ; be kinder to thy Elector and benefactor if not to thy
lover. Should thou persist, thou wilt be my murderess ; be assured
thou wilt slay me even more easily than another could with the sword.
I ask nothing more, save that thou wilt love me in return ; there is no
obstacle ; no one can say thee nay. Say that thou lovest me and
make me happy. Thy ring shall never leave my finger ; I will moisten
it with repeated kisses as a substitute for thyself. Farewell, my darling ;
grant me the solace that thou canst. Thy devoted

"Charles Louis, &c. &c."
275

Appendix

No. 3.

" To the most charming Lady Maria Susanna, Baroness
Degenfeld, for her dear hands.

" Greetings to thee.

" Maria Susanna, thy letter has saved me, though not entirely free
from bitterness, which I hope thou wilt remove when thou hast heard
what I have to say. Thy letter, signed and sealed with thy ring,
reached me safely ; I have read it again and again with frequent kisses,
and it suggests something at variance with thy former attitude. Thou
askest me to cease to love thee, since it would not beseem thee to follow
the fires of a stranger's love, in support thereof alleging instances of
maidens who have been betrayed in a style so polished and cultivated
that I ought to admire rather than forget thy talents.

" What man is there who would cease to love when he finds his
mistress cautious and prudent ? Hadst thou desired to lessen my love,
thou shouldst not have displayed thy learning. This will not extinguish
the fire, but will only fan the embers into flame. Come now, at last
take pity on thy lover, who is melting away like snow before the sun.
If thou dost thus punish me who love thee, how will thou treat one who
injures thee ? Oh, my salvation and my consolation ! take me into thy
favour at last ; write back that I am dear to thee, that is all I desire.
Farewell, my hope ! Thine Charles Louis."

The following is the answer of Maria Susanna, Baroness Degenfeld
to the previous letters of Karl Ludwig, Elector Palatine : —

" To the most Serene Elector Palatine, Charles Louis,
Duke of Bavaria, my beloved.

"No longer can I resist thee, most Serene Elector, nor refuse thee my
love ; thou hast conquered ! Now I am thine ; unhappy woman to
have received thy letters ! Many dangers must threaten me unless thy
good faith and prudence aid me ; see that thou keep thy word. I
surrender to thy love ; if tliou dost desert me, thou art cruel and a
traitor, and most villainous ; it is easy to deceive a poor woman, but the
easier, the baser it is. Nothing is settled as yet ; if thou dost desire to
leave me, say so, before my passion becomes more imflamed ; let us not
begin what we may afterwards regret having begun. Wc shall always
love to the end. I, as is the way of women, see but little. Thou seest,

276

Appendix

and it behoves thee to have a care for both. I give myself to thee, and
trust in thy good faith. I will not begin to be thine except I am to
be thine for ever. Farewell, my protector.

" Maria Susanna, Baroness Degenfeld."

P. 213, /. 14. — The Electress Sophia, in her Memoirs (translated by
H. Forester), says : "Worn out at last by his wife's bad temper, which
he had striven vainly for seven years to subdue, the Elector had made
up his mind to have a divorce, and to take the Baroness Luise von
Degenfeldt in her stead. In a declaration on their separation, the
Elector stated that during the whole of their wedded life, especially
latterly, his wife''s conduct to him had been uniformly contradictory,
disobedient, obstinate, sulky and rebellious, and that, notwithstanding
all his patience and long-suffering, she continued in this insufferable
and extraordinary frame of mind." The Electress added that her
sister-in-law was very stupid, thinking of nothing besides her clothes,
but that she was handsome and idolised by her brother. It was said
that she had given any heart she had to Duke Frederick of Wiirtemberg,
and had been forced into the marriage with Karl Ludwig.

P. 213, /. 24. — The Protestant family of Schomberg or Schonberg
(as it is in German) was a branch of an ancient German family, and was
settled in the diocese of Treves. They had long been associated with
the family of the Elector Palatine. When James I. placed his daughter.
Princess Elizabeth, under the care of Lord and Lady Harrington at Combe
Abbey, her favourite companion was Lady Harrington's niece, Anne
Dudley, daughter of Edward Sutton, Lord Dudley, and this friendship
continued till death severed it.

On the occasion of Princess Elizabeth's marriage with the Elector
Palatine, he presented Anne Dudley with a magnificent chain of pearls
and diamonds, and the Princess insisted on her coming to Heidelberg as
one of her ladies, which she did, but soon after married Comte Jean
Meinhardt Schomberg, Grand-Marshal of the Palatinate, and died in
December of the same year at the birth of her son Frederick, who became
the celebrated General, killed at the battle of the Boyne. Had she lived
to see the laurels won by her son, she would have had mixed feelings, in
thinking that they were won fighting against a Stuart, the nephew of her
beloved mistress.

P. 46, /. 10. — In one the French King writes as follows: " Vous
n'avez pas besoin de semhlables conjonctures pour me faire agr^er vos

277 S 2

Appendix

lettres. II suffit qu'elles viennent de vous pour etre revues en tout temps
avec beaucoup de distinction. Soyez en bien persuadee et jugez par ce
que je viens de faire en votre faveur de ce que vous devez attendre de la
continuation de mon estime en d'autres occasions, et c'est de bon coeur
que je prie Dieu de vous avoir ma cousine, en sa sainte et digne garde.

" Louis."

P. 95, footnote. — This lady is interesting as having been for three
years the object of affection of her cousin Lord Edv^ard Fitzgerald.
When he proposed to her in 1786 she refused him, but he continued
to think of her and lived in hopes of a change in her sentiments. In
1788 he vv^rote as follovv^s to the Duchess of Leinster : "As long as

there is the smallest hope of being happy with G , it is not possible

to be happy with any one else. I never can, I think, love anybody as I
do her, for with her I can find no fault ; I may admire and love other
women, but none can come in competition with her. Dearest mother,
after yourself I think she is the most perfect creature on earth."

His hopes received their final blow when, on his unexpected return
from America in 1789, he found on reaching his mother's house in
Harley Street that a wedding dinner was then actually going on, given by
the Duchess of Leinster in honour of the recent marriage of Georgiana
Lennox to Lord Bathurst. Lord Edward's arrival at such an inauspicious
moment caused no little excitement, and his sister. Lady Sophia Fitzgerald,
rushed from the table to stop him from coming in, and thus prevented an
embarrassing encounter.

If Georgiana Lennox had favoured his suit, how different in all prob-
ability would have been the future of Lord Edward, and a noble, gener-
ous, and well-beloved life would probably have been saved, for it was his
disappointment that drove him again from home, and he went to Paris,
where the pernicious seeds sown in his heart whilst he was in America
became so fatally developed.

CORRIGENDA

Page 39, lines 23 and 24, fo?- " wished for no better fate " reacf " wished
for her no better fate."

Page 51, line 17, for "from 1775 till 1788" read "from 1675 till 1688."
Page 86, line 22, /or "a fid of feathers " read "a lid of feathers."
Page 103, lines 22 and 2S,/or " Fouchet " read " Fouch^."
Page 167, line 11, /or " confirmed" read "conformed."

278

INDEX

Adair, Lady Caroline, 90, 91

„ Robert, 87-91

,, Sir Robert, 91
Adolphus, John, 82
Ainsworth, Harrison, 86
Alazdn, the river, 117, 119
Albemarle, Countess of, 89

,, William-Anne Keppel, second

Earl of, 88, 89
Alexander, the Emperor, 137
Antraigues, Comte d', 99, 103, 104, 270

„ Comtesse d', 144, 270

Arlington, Earl of, 31, yj

„ Countess of, 17, 39
Armstrong, Sir Thomas, 35
Arquien, Antoine, Marquis d', 197
Assheton, Christopher, 248
Aubigny, 40, 67
Aylmer, Lady, 109

„ Lord, 109, 110, III, 112, 114

Baillie of Jerviswood, George, 155, 156
,, ,, Lady Grizel, 156

„ „ MissGrizel, 156, 157

„ „ Robert, 148, 152

Bariatinsky, General, 139
Barrington, George, fifth Viscount, 91
Bath, 90, 231, 270
Bathurst, Benjamin, 92

„ Benjamin (of Battesden), 92

„ Countess, 95, 275

„ Emmeline, 108

„ Henry, 92

,, Phillida, Mrs., 93, 100-103

„ Rose, 108-1 15

„ Sir James, 93, 108
Beaufort, Due de, 25

Beaulieu, 245

Bedford, fourth Duke of, 71, 74, 75
„ Francis, fifth Duke of, 77
,, John, sixth Duke of, 77
Belasyse, Anne, Lady, 59
Bellings, Sir Richard, 29, 31
Benserade, 31
Berkeley, James, Earl of, 59

„ Lady Louise, 59, 60
Bierley, Colonel Robert, 184

„ Madame, 181, 182, 184
Binning, Lord, 156
Blessington, Lady, 11 2-1 14
Blumine, 2, 6, 7, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16
Bog-of-Gicht, 187
Bohemia, Elizabeth, Queen of, 202, 203,

209
Bolas, 142, 143, 145
Bolton, Henrietta, Duchess of, 61
Bonaparte, Napoleon, 95, loi, 103, 107, ro8
Boquhan, 185
Bordeaux, 152
Boscher, 33
Boscobel, 262, 263
Bossuet, 34, 35
Boule, Andre-Charles, 52
Bourbon, 45

Boyd, Jeanne, daughter of John, 177
Boyssonade, La, 165

,, Sieur de la, 166

Brabantine, Charlotte, 251
Brest, 21, 24
Bretagne, dukes of, 22
Brissac, Due de, 45
Broderick, Miss Catherine, 92
Browne, Sir Richard, 24
Buchanan, George, 1 5 1

•79

Ind

Buckingham, Duke of, 29, 36, 48

Buller, Charles, 6, 7, 14

Burleigh, 145

Burnbank, 185

Burnet, Bishop, 149

Burrell, Lady, 177

Bury, Lady Charlotte, 179

Bussy, Comte de, 70

Cadogan, Earl, 62

„ Lady Sarah, 62, 63

„ Margaretta-Cecilia, Countess,

62
Caillaud, Brigadier-General, 177
Call, George, 100, 102, 107
„ Phillida, 93
„ Sir John, 93
Campbell, Hon. James, 181-185

„ Lady Anne, 189
Canning, 103
Carisbrooke Castle, 234
Carlyle, Thomas, 2, 6-13
" Carwell," 20
Castle Goring, 177
Castlemaine, Lady, 37
Castlestuart, Earl of, 108
Catherine, Empress, 135
Catherine of Braganza, 30
Caucasus, 117, 118
Cecil, Lady Sophia, 146
„ Lord Thomas, 146
„ Mr. Henry, 141-144
„ Mrs. Henry, 141
Charles L, 33, 225, 227
Charles IL, 28-32, 35-43, 46-50, 52-56
Charlotte of Hesse-Cassel, 210, 211, 212
Charlton, 60, 61
Chesterfield, Lord, 31, 32
Chichester, 61
Chinnery, R..\., i
Christian, William, 266
Cinq-Mars, 192
Clevis, 208
Cochrane, Grizel, 158

„ Sir John, 158
Colbert, 30, 37

Conde, Prince de, 195, 197

Coote, Grace, 92

Cornwallis, Lord, 5

Courvoisier, Francois Benjamin, 81-86

Craven, Earl of, 203

Crispe, Sir Nicholas, 225-230

Czartoriski, 201

Daghestan, 127, 129
Dargi-Vedenno, 126, 127, 128, 130
Davidson, Dr., 190

Degenfeldt, Christopher Martin, Baron
von, 211
„ Luise von, 21 1-213, 274-277

Derassus, Madame, 172
Derby, Countess of, 253-268

„ James Stanley, seventh Earl of,
253-265
Descartes, 204, 205, 206
Djemmal-Eddin, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138
Dover, 28, 30, 31, 32
Dragonnades, Les, 169
Dranc^ay, Madame, 118, 120, 122, 129, 137
Dublin, 176, 177
Dumas, Alexandre, 116
Dundonald, Earl of, 153, 163, 164
Dunster, Siege of, 216

Elinichna, the Princess Anna, 117
Elizabeth of England, Princess, 202

„ Princess Palatine, 204

EUico, the Tzarevitch, 116
Elphinstone, 51
Enyon, Sir James, 228
Evelyn, John, 50
Exeter, Marchioness of, 146

„ Marquess of, 145, 146

Fairfax, General, 256-261
Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, 65, 278
Forbin, Bishop, 199
Fouquet, Madame de, 174
Fox, Charles James, 65, 77

„ Harry, 63, 64, 65

„ Lady Caroline, 65
Fox, the Quaker, 209
280

Index

Frederick, Elector Palatine, 202
Frederick -William, Elector Palatine,

194-195, 208
Fyfield, 247, 248

Gascar, Henri, 31, 52
Gaucher, Mademoiselle, 89
Geneva, 172-173
Georgia, 1 16-136

„ Anastasia, Princess of, 136

„ Princess Anna of, 117-140

„ Princess Tamara of, 140

„ Princess Varvara of, 1 17-139
Gerard, Thomas, 217
Giffard, Charles, 263
Gonzague, Marie- Louise de, 1 91-197

„ Princess Anne de, 203

Gordon, Catherine, third Duchess of, 196-
201

„ Duke of, 77

„ George, Lord, 189

„ Lady Georgiana, 77

„ Lady Katharine, 190, 191, 195,
196, 199,201, 272,273,274

,, Lord Henry, 1 90-191
Grabbe, General, 128
Grammont, Comte and Comtesse de, 26
Grange, Antoine de la, 197

„ Marie de la, 197
Grey, Ford, Lord, 60
Guarrison, Madame, 171
Guebriant, Martfchale de, 192-194
Guiler, 25
Guy, Henry, 57

Halsenoth, Joan, 218, 223

Hamilton, Elizabeth, Dowager- Duchess

of, 146
Hammersmith church, 225
Hanbury Hall, 141
Harris, the Rev. Mohun, 17
Heidelberg, 209
Henrietta Maria, 33, 34
Henry VIL, 239, 241, 243, 245, 246
Herford or Hervorden, 209
Heronville, Comte d', 89

Hervey, Lady, 1 56

Hext, Amias, 223

Himri, 127

Hodnet, 144, 145

Hoggins, Captain Thomas, 145

„ Captain William, 145

„ Rev. James, 145

„ Sarah, 143
Holdernesse, Robert d'Arcy,Earl of, 214
Holland, Baroness, 65

„ House, 65

,, Lord, 65
Holydale, 2

Huddleston, Father John, 55
Hume, Grizel, 147-156

„ Sir Patrick, 147-156
Huntly, George Gordon, second Marquis

of, 187, 188, 189
Hyderabad, 2, 3

Inchbald, Mrs., 51
Irvine, Alexander, 190
Irving, Edward, 7, 8, 9

Jackson, Will, 218
Jenkins, Sir Leoline, 53
John Casimir, 194, 196, 198
Johnston, Sir John, Bart., 181-185
Jones, John, 142-145

Karl Ludwig, the Elector Palatine,

202, 203, 209-210, 213, 274, 276
Kennaway, Sir John, 172
Keppel, Admiral, 76

„ Lady Elizabeth, 72-77
Kergorlay, Marquis de, 21, 269
Keroualle, Guillaume, Comte de, 21, 24,
269
„ Louise de, 1-71

„ Sebastien, Comte de, 24, 25

Khyr oon Nissa, 3-6
Kirkpatrick, Colonel James, 2

„ Colonel James Achilles, 2,

5, 4, 5
„ General William, 6

„ Katharine Aurora, 5-13

281

Index

Kirkpatrick, William George,

Klitzing, Captain, 97,
Krouse, 97, 98, 100
Kyme, 249

105, 107

Labadik, Jean, 208
Labadists, 208
Lafeldt, 178
Lanark, Earl of, 188
Lane, Jane, 218
Languedoc, 165, 169
Lathom, 254-259
Lauderdale, the Duke of, 147
Lauze, Jeanne de la, 169
Lauzun, Due de, 26, 27
Law, John, 66
Leibnitz, 209
Leinster, Duke of, 2 1
Le Moine, Monsieur, 39
Lennox, Lady Anne, 61, 72

„ Lady Arthur, 82, 83

,, Lady George, 214
Lepel, Molly, 156, 157
Lesghiens, 1 16-125
Leslie, Hon. Margaret, 185
Le Sueur, Hubert, 232
Leszcrynski, Vice-Chancellor, 196, 272
Lister, Sir Martin, 33
Louis, Lady, 6
Louis XIV., 22, 24, 26, 27
Lude, Madame du, 25, 45
Ludwig, Karl, 202, 203, 209-210, 213, 274,

276
Lulli, 35
Luther, 212
Lytton, Buhver, 92

Macaulay, 56

" Madame," 26-35

Mademoiselle, La Grande, 26, 27

Magdeburg, loi, 102, 103

Malebranche, 209

Man, Isle of, 253, 255, 259, 260, 261, 266

March, Lord, 62, 63

Marie-Louise, Queen, 192-196

Marischal, Countess, 41

Marlborough, Duchess of, 73, 75
Marmontel, 88, 89
Marysienka, 197-199
Masulipatam, 6
Mayerne, Sir Theodore, 23
Mazarin, 193
Meer Allum, 3
Melancthon, 212
Mercer, Mrs., 14
Mitcnik, 135

Monmouth, Duke of, 28, 152
Monro, Andrew, 2
Montauban, 165-173
Montgomery, Archibald, 181, 182, 183
Montmorency-Laval, Due de, 109
Montpensier, Mademoiselle de, 26, 27,34
Montrose, 188, 189

Morsztyn, Count John Andrew, 195,
200, 201, 272, 273, 274

Napoleon, 95

Nassau, Charlotte Brabantine de, 251

Nicholas, Emperor, 126, 128, 134

Orbeliani, Prince Ellico, 126, 127

„ Princess \^arvara, 1 16-139

Orford, Lord, 85
Orleans, Philippe, Due d', 26, 34
Ormond, Duchess of, 49

Parke, Baron, 82, 83
Pechell, Admiral Mark, 179

,, Augustus, 179

„ Captain Charles Kerr, 180, 271,
272

,, Captain Mark Kerr, 180, 270, 271,
272
Jacob, 176, 177

„ Lady Brooke, 179

„ Mrs. Jacob, 177

„ Samuel, 178

„ Sir Paul, 179

„ Sir Thomas Brooke, 179
Pechels, Jean Horace de, 167-169

„ Jerome de, 170

„ Madame de, 170-176

,, Samuel de, 167, 168, 176

282

Index

Pembroke, Henriette, Countess of, 44
„ Philip Herbert, Earl of, 25

Penancoet, 21, 269
Penderell, 262
Penhoet, 21, 269
Penn, William, 209
Pentonville, 25
Percy, Lord Algernon, no
Perleberg, 97-99, 100, 105-106
Peschel, Oscar, 170
Phelips, Colonel Robert, 222
Phillips, 82, 83, 84
Phillipps, Colonel James Winsloe-, 16, 17

„ Mrs., 1-18
Pierrepont, Hon. H. M., 145
Ploeuc, Marie-Anne de, 23
Pokhalsky, 128
Polwarth, Lord, 155
Poniatowski, Stanislaus Augustus, 186,

201
Poole, Miss Finetta, 92
Portland, Frances Stuart, Countess of,
232-237

„ Jerome Weston, second Earl of,
231-237

„ Richard Weston, Earl of, 231,
232, 233

„ Thomas Weston, fourth Earl of,

237
Portsmouth, Louise de Keroualle, Duchess
of, 19-71

QUEROUAILLE, 23, 24

Rabutin, Bussy, 39

Redbraes, 151

Richmond, Anne, Duchess of, 59, 61

,, Charles Lennox, first Duke of,

40. 41, 45; 57-61
„ Charles Lennox, second Duke

of, 48, 62, 63
„ Charles Stuart, Duke of, 267

,, Sarah, Duchess of, 62, 63

Rieux, Jean de, 21
„ Rene de, 21
„ Rene-Louis de, 22

283

R'gby, Colonel, 147, 152

Rivett, John, 231, 235, 236

Robinet, Charles, 26

Roehampton House, 232, 235

Roentgen (Rontgen), 100, loi, 102,

103
Rohan, Louis Chabot Due de, 67
Rupert, Prince, 28, 48, 211
Russell, Lady Caroline, 72

„ Lord John, 77, 86

„ Lord William, 73
Mr. William, 78

„ Mrs. William, 78, 79

„ Sir Henry, 1-16
Ruvigny, Comte and Comtesse de, 44

SabONIERES, Jacob de Thierry-, 170

„ Mademoiselle, Marquise

de, 170
„ M. de Saint Sardos, 169

"Sartor Resartus," 2, 7, 11-16
Schamyl, 129, 131-139
Schomberg, Duke of, 175, 277

„ Lady Frederica, 213

„ Meinhardt von, 213, 277

Schiirmann, Anna Maria, 204, 207, 208
Sevign^, Madame de, 19, 35, 39

„ Mademoiselle de, 39
Shirley, Mr. C, 68
Shooter's Hill, 8

Shurfoon Nissa, Begum, 3, 16, 17
Sneyd, Mr. Richard, 262

,, The Rev. William, 141, 142
Sobieski, Jean, 197-200
Somerset, Colonel Alfred, 177
Sommelsdyck, Van, 157, 20S
Sorbieres, 48
Sourdeac, Marquis de, 2 1
Stanley, Ladies Catherine and Amelia,

261, 266
Strachey, Mrs., 13

„ Sir Edward, 17
Strange, Lord, 253-255
Strangways, Sir Giles, 210
,, Sir John, 210

Strickland, William, 164

Index

Stuart, Emmeline, \'iscountess, io8
Sunderland, Countess of, 53

„ Dowager-Countess of, 53

Swallowfield, i
Symnel, Lambert, 241

TamarAj Princess, 118, 122, 140
Tavistock, Marchioness of, 75-77, 91

„ Marquis of, 73-76, 90

Tayleur, Rev. Cressweli, 143, 144, 145
Tchavtchavadze, Prince David, 117, 118,

133-135
Princess Anna, 116, 132,
134, 140
Temple, Sir William, 29
Tennyson, 145
Thackeray, 85
Thianges, Madame de, 28
Thistlethwayte, Mrs. Trj'phena, 96, 105,

106
Thois, Marquis de, 25
Thouars, Due de, 251, 252
Thurtell, 13

Tiflis, 117, 118, 119, 136
Toms, T})
Tournay, 239

Tremoille, Charlotte de la, 251-268
,, Claude de la, 251
„ Duchesse de la, 264
Trent, 217-219, 220, 222
Trdville, Comte de, 32
Tsenondahl, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121,
136

Uniacke, Captain, 17
Utrecht, 154, 155

Valence, Bishop Cosnac of, 31
Valliere, Louise de la, 27
Vannes, 69
Vernon, Miss Emma, 141

„ Miss Henrietta, ^^
Vienna, 93, 94
Villiers, Lady Charlotte, 78
Voetius, 207

Waller, Edmund, 32, 235
Walters, John, 240
Warbeck, Perkin, 238-250
Warsaw, 193
Warwick, Earl of, 77
Welles, K.G., John, Viscount, 249
Wellesley, Lord, 2, 5
Wellington, Duke of, 93
Welsh, Jane, 7, 9, 10, 14, 18
Weston, Jerome, 231, 232, 233-237

„ Richard, 231, 232, 233
Wharton, Lord, 153, 182
„ Mary, 181-184

„ Philip, i8i

Whitehall, 36
Whitworth, Sir Charles, 91
Witherby, John, 249
Wogan, Colonel, 263
Worcester, 262
Wyndham, Anne, 217, 218

,, Colonel Francis, 216-223

„ Dowager Lady, 217-223

,, Sir John, 215

„ Sir Thomas, 215

Zamosc, Jacob de Radziwill, Prince de,

197
Zamoyska, Princess, 197

Printed by Ballantynf,, Hanson (V Co.
Edinburgh 6* London

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY

Los Angeles
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.

Form L9-32m-8, "58(587684)444

UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY

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106

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